20 Questions Answered!

Brendan over at Untimately posted 20 necessary questions about the rules we play with. I'm a bit late to the party, but I'm happy to oblige (and very happy for a good excuse to post something myself!):

1. Ability scores generation method?

18D6, distribute 3 dice per ability. A rolled 6 gets rerolled and a player may change the new result with an old one.

2. How are death and dying handled?

With zero hp you are unconcious.  With -1 to -3 hp a character looses 1 hp per round and he dies at -10 if not prevented by Con-Check, healing or first aid. If is at at 0 hp or above and damage puts him to -4 hp or less, he is dead. Same goes for the monsters and NPCs. Additionally a player may opt to cheat death one time per level.

3. What about raising the dead?

It's possible. 1000 gp per level and the occasional favour. It helps to believe into the god.

4. How are replacement PCs handled?

Roll a new character and rejoin the session as soon as possible.

5. Initiative: individual, group, or something else?

Something else.

6. Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work?

For fumbles I use the Arduin Tables (for now). Crits do maximum damage and echo applies (not rolling a 12 on the D12 results in fatigue damage now...).

7. Do I get any benefits for wearing a helmet?

Maybe, but I handle armour a bit differently, so here is a post unwritten...

8. Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly?

Not if they cooperate in Combat. Area damage and fumbles on the other hand do that for you.

9. Will we need to run from some encounters, or will we be able to kill everything?

If it's around and angry, it might be able to kill them all. They might not be in a position to return the favour.

10. Level-draining monsters: yes or no?

Oh yeah, they exist.

11. Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death?

Yes, could happen. Well, happened already, to be honest.

12. How strictly are encumbrance & resources tracked?

I keep an eye on it, but not as closely as I should.

13. What's required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in  the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for down time?

Happens automatically. Fast and simple.

14. What do I get experience for?

We keep score of the damage the party takes and delivers and multiply it by 10 at the end of the session, then everybody gets his share. Additionaly there are quest related xp and xp for roleplaying (loosely oriented at HackMaster).

15. How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination?

Description first, dice rolling after that if necessary.

16. Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work?

They try, but those guys have a tendency to die away or flee.

17. How do I identify magic items?

Per the spell or for 100 gp by any MU who might be bothered to care.

18. Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions?

Yeah, you can buy them, but they are very rare and very expensive. Potions are available (500 gp per healing potion).

19. Can I create magic items? When and how?

Yeah, as soon as you have the spells to do so...

20. What about splitting the party?

I like it, the players don't.

The limits of control (Discovering Old School D&D)

Here I go again. Had nothing posted for a very long time, but real live has a tendency to fuck things up and to express the thoughts of my poor German brain in English is harder than I thought. Especially since there is so much great stuff already out there! So the Ranger is out of the woods again, let's see how long he'll stay at the inn to tell his stories...

D&D is a very complex game.

I was DM in many games before I confronted myself with The Rules Cyclopedia for D&D nearly 2 years ago. Being a huge fan of the OSR I decided to make the game my own. I picked some house rules from the community, made some on my own and generally made a fool of myself trying new things. But most of the experience I had with other games seemed insufficient to give me a feeling for the game. Oh, we had tons of fun killing and looting and dungeon crawling, but most of the time I wasn't able to see the big picture. I was only going through the motions and used powerful tropes to keep me aloft. As I stated before, it worked. Sort of.

The biggest problem: how to improvise the game.

Most games set boundaries. That's a good thing, because within these boundaries and in combination with the rules a DM is able to improvise the game. Most of the newer rpgs bring a specific setting or theme with them and/or the rules are designed to fulfil very specific purposes. This is also true for 3e and it's offsprings (well, mostly, I'll get to that). But it's definitly not true for the RC and, arguably, any older edition of D&D. The sheer scope of the game is impressive if not intimidating!

So what's this about?

A Magic User (in the Rules Cyclopedia) needs 4.350.000 xp to reach level 36 and if he got that far, he might as well aim for immortality. As did those who were already gods when he got his first chesthair. I'd guess most people don't play this far, but that's not the point. You have the monsters to challenge PCs or NPCS of such power. They (the monsters and the mighty) shape the world around the players and have done so for thousands of years. They have already earned the xp to get there or are on their way while your players make characters. This is where DIY and improvising gets VERY difficult.

This might be old news, but Gary did it...

I sometimes wondered why most people think D&D is only fun for the first 3/6/10 levels. Now I think the reason is because it's manageable. The aforementioned boundaries are in effect. Any power levels above that are handled as flavourtext. Or by using something published. Or by playing the game for decades (without getting gamers ADD). Nothing wrong with that.

But for me this is the sweet spot I am aiming for. Not only to decide how my campaign setting developed and how those power levels shaped it, but also to see this machine working in full force. This just might be why I wanted to start blogging and where the focus of this blog should be: exploring D&D as someone with no experience in this wonderful game.

The Wizard (Reskinning Classes: Part 1)

Let's start this the right way.

    D&D 4th Edition        OSR Magic        the new guy in town    

So Jeff over at Jeff's Gameblog had this awesome series about the Arduin Grimoire going. Part 5 of this series was about MAGIC IN ARDUIN and Mana. This is the basic deal (I tinkered a little bit with it...):

• Spells as usual (see spell list below).
• Memorize as usual.
• Int 8 or lower - (INT times Level divided by 4) Mana
• Int 9-12 - (INT times Level divided by 3) Mana
• Int 13 or more - (INT times Level divided by 2) Mana
• To cast a spell costs (spell level times 3) Mana.
• You may use half the Mana costs to cast a spell with half it's effect.
• You may use double of the Mana costs to cast a spell with 1.5 of it's effect.
• As long as you have Mana, you may cast any spell you have memorized, but any Mana you used without actually having it will reduce your Hit Points by that amount (last resort, sort of).
• Mana regenerates after 8 hours of undisturbed sleep.
• You may attempt to counter a spell if you are faster (Ini) than the casting MU and recognize the spell (via INT-check or any skill, if applicable). You have to use the exact amount of Mana as the casting MU (or more than that) or your counter failed (the Mana would be lost).
• To activate a spell on a scroll is 1 Mana per spell level.

With the Mana costs at spell level x 3 he couldn't cast more than he actually would with the classic rules, but he is much more flexible in his casting.

What Spells on Level 1?

This is an example, the whole spell list would take to much space, but it shows what I wanted to show:

Spells Lvl 1 (roll 1d20 for random pleasure!)

Basic Spells
Cantrips
Read Magic 

Spells
1 Analyze
2 Alarm
3 Armor
4 Burning Hands
5 Charm Person
6 Color Spray
7 Detect Magic
8 Feather Fall
9 Grease
10 Hold Portal
11 Light*
12 Magic Missile
13 Message
14 Read Languages
15 Shield
16 Sleep
17 Taunt
18 Unseen Servant
19 Ventriloquism
20 Wall of Fog

It's a mix of spells from the D&D Rules Cyclopedia and AD&D. All missing spells might be around, but that's what you get. Basic Spells means they have it always memorized (without using a Spell Slot) because it was an essential part of their qualification as a wizard. They should be able to use important spells like Read Magic. Cantrips (1 Mana per Cantrip) are nice flavour for THE GAME. My thinking, anyway.

I discarded any spells a MU could use to fortify some physical ability (be it Spider Climb or Jump) on purpose*. The MU, as I would like to have him in my game, manipulates the physical world to achieve his goals, not the other way around. Feather Fall is disputable in this, but there is a difference between a guy casting a spell to climb a wall (a physical action) and a guy casting a spell because he lost his footing (desperation).

The rest as usual, please!

For progression, hit points and spells per level I use the Rules Cyclopedia. As a courtesy I give them for every +1 INT bonus one more spell (a +3 would mean one more spell for the first 3 spell levels, etc.).

It's not the only way to present the MU in a D&D game, but it's the way I prefer it. I hope there are a few new ideas or perspectives, though.

* The MU in my group commented this with: Why use Jump if you can fly in style?

Black Sabbath introducing Classes in D&D (Reskinning Classes: Prologue)

The OSR made me do it!

Especially this guy. But it's no new idea to customize Classes in an RPG or even to build new Classes to make the players happy. As a regular feature in my Campaign, players may unlock new Classes (it's just my fancy way to give them the feeling they've achieved something...). There are already two examples on this blog. For this series I would like to talk about the basic Classes in the Rules Cyclopedia, though. Like, my view on the Thief, why should a MU have Mana, Cleric spells at 2nd level (but...), this sort of thing. And when I started thinking about this, I considered linking some Black Sabbath to it, you know, for flavour.

And soon I realized it's ALL Black Sabbath!

Dig it! The Wizard:

The Fighter:

The Thief (okay, tricky... Paranoid maybe?):

The Cleric (now, this is a freebie):

The Elf:

The Dwarf:

The Halfling (sorry, nothing comes to mind but this):

Well, it wasn't that easy after all. But very Old School. Next will be an intimate look into the Wizard (Spell lists, Arduin Mana and Cantrips to blow funny smokerings).

The Ranger lost in Slovenia

A 3D map of a giant petrified Purple Worm with a Mad Wizard in it? Sounds cool?

Check it out over at prekomorec!

Behold the Quest for Prince Charming (Addendum)

While writing my last post I was on a quest for a picture of a good Disney Prince (for the Changeling Class below). I would have gone for funny, but this is what I got then:

"You want to kiss her awake? Save vs. Dragon Breath!

(A mint might give you a bonus...) "

This one was nice, but I couldn't use it (may share it nonetheless):

There were also a lot of frog pictures,

because... er... nerver mind.

One picture wouldn't leave me alone, though:

What did this guy do wrong?

But I missed something. And then it hit me:

Then the DM in my head says: "Yeah, yeah. You mean, when a Changeling gets drained to level zero, he not only looses his Charm Power, he also gets very hairy and a bad attitude. Funny that. Ha Ha." That bastard...

Elves are no mammals, goddarnit! (introducing: Prince Charming)

Elves should be immortal!

So me and my flatmate were discussing the absurd idea of Elves having schlongs to reproduce or to make little Half Elves. My flatmate is kind of a Tolkien connoisseur and starts quoting that Half Elves are very VERY rare and a gift granted only by the gods. And for making it even remotely possible to happen, an Elf has to give up immortality. Because while being immortal, there is no need to reproduce! It should be like this in D&D, too.

But how may I play an immortal being in D&D?

Obviously it's not consistend with the rules and it always bothered me that an level 1 Elf was considerably older than, say, humans but was nearly as weak and inexperienced as those half-sophisticated apes with sticks. Plus, he has level restrictions! WTF?! Without an reasonable explanation well established in an campaign you might get... 3rd Edition and special friends?

Is there an easy solution to make it all work out?

Might be. This is how I propose it in my campaign, anyway. Elves are classic Fairies, etheral and immortal beings with only one foot in reality. With all the magic forests where you might turn the wrong way and end up in Alfheim or Eldamar or something. I have The Wild Hunt with Oberon in the lead. Whatever makes THE GAME interesting. It's like in Poul Andersons novel The Broken Sword. And if a player wants to play an Elf, he may do that. BUT...

Elves as Player Characters? With level restrictions?!

There are two direct ways for the Fae to interact with the world of the living. They might steal a human child and raise it as their own (The Changeling, my substitute for the Half Elf, more on that later in this post).

Or one of them might decide to roam the world as a mortal for some time to protect the way of the Elves (protect natures beauty, you know the drill)*. It's a perfect excuse for an Adventurer. Their time as mortals needs to be restricted (by level, in game terms), because there is always a danger of contamination. After that period they may not make it back. They start so weak because they have to learn to live under those conditions and all former expierence is more in the way than helping (right there is the age difference). If they die, their corpse has to be brought back to an Elven forest or their soul might not find its way back to the Elven Court. They don't need sleep as humans do, but when they dream, they visit their homeland and may communicate with their friends (this is for possible adventure hooks, too). They get very depressive and cranky if they don't have those 4 hours.

Dark Elves, an afterthought.

A group of banished Elves, forced to live under the earth and never to feel the joy and beauty of their realm and immortality again. Made them a little bitter. How do they reproduce? I don't know, maybe they trick happy Elves to the Dark Side (they really hate those guys). They seek immortality (Lolth is one of those who made it, hence the cult, works fine with the Rules Cyclopedia) or revenge. Unpleasant folk to have around.

The Changeling (aka Prince Charming)**

It's Disneys fault!

He's your regular Knight in Shining Armour. Raised by tricky Elves (they stole him, to begin with) he comes around like a Disney incarnation of Prince Charming. Always smiling, always rescuing damsels in distress, always popular at parties. And sooner or later he disappears into the dawn, leaving behind broken hearts and the question "Where oh where did the fascination come from?!". Being a classic hedonist he loves to enjoy life and beauty, fighting evil is just a way for him to become famous (and kick ugly people). He likes Elves and knows what's good for you.

Prime Requisites: Strength and Luck (or Charisma)
Experience Bonus: 5% for STR or LUCK (CHA, respectively) higher than 12, 10% for STR and LUCK higher than 12
Hit Dice: 1d6 per level up to 9th level. Starting with 10th level, +2 hit points per level, and Constitution adjustments no longer apply.

Maximum Level: 36 (and might go for immortality like an Elve or like a god)
Armour: Any, shilds permitted
Weapon: Any
Combat Progression: like Fighter
Weapon Mastery: normal
Saves as: Thief
Special Ablities:
At level 1: Charm Person (as the spell; at will level/3 (round up) per day)
At Level 9: Charm Monster (as the spell; at will (level-7)/3 (round up) per day)
At level 18: Mass Charm (as the spell; at will (level-16)/3 (round up) per day)

Changeling Experience Table

Level         XP   Special Abilities

  1            0    Charm Person (as the spell; at will level/3 (round up) per day)
  2        2.700    
  3        5.400    
  4       10.800      
  5       21.600    
  6       45.000      
  7       90.000    
  8      180.000     
  9      360.000   Charm Monster (as the spell; at will (level-7)/3 (round up) per day)
 10      480.000    
 11      600.000   
 12      720.000   
 13      840.000   
 14      960.000   
 15    1.080.000   
 16    1.200.000   
 17    1.320.000   
 18    1.440.000    Mass Charm (as the spell; at will (level-16)/3 (round up) per day)
 19    1.560.000   
 20    1.680.000   
 21    1.800.000   
 22    1.920.000   
 23    2.040.000   
 24    2.160.000   
 25    2.280.000   
 26    2.400.000   
 27    2.520.000   
 28    2.640.000   
 29    2.760.000   
 30    2.880.000   
 31    3.000.000   
 32    3.120.000   
 33    3.240.000   
 34    3.360.000   
 35    3.480.000   
 36    3.600.000   

*Again the flatmate: Tolkien did this (sort of) with the Maiar.
**Using this.