I saw my post this morning had 5 views. Does that mean someone's still subscribed? That'd be pretty nifty. I had a couple cool guys comment when I used to post regularly, and it'd be cool to know if anyone is still out there.
If you are, what do you wanna read about? Anything you'd like me to post? I might start posting cool stuff I find in RIFTS, Arduin, Chaosium, and Talislanta products. Let me know if anyone is interested. I could do play reports too, but I've never really been one to read those myself, so I never thought to write them.
Oh and if anyone does read this, why not go snoop around the ODD74 boards. It's a friendly place, stop in and say hi. I might have to do that myself.
Cheers guys.
Sunday, May 13, 2018
OD&D is King
I haven't blogged in a while. There's a number of reasons, chiefly though is the following. I realized, especially after hanging out at the ODD74 boards for so long, and getting to play a lot of D&D, that OD&D really is the best way to play ANYTHING. It's so stupidly easy to use material from any other game, especially because of the lack of rules. There's really not much to say. Games like Microlite20 and RISUS really drive the point home.
Don't expect much on here anymore. Who knows I might start writing again, but there's really not much to say once you realize it's all just a game. More rules is never going to make that fun. Recent experiences with Starfinder have shown me that. I was super excited to play, and I figured being Sci Fi, all the rules wouldn't seem out of place. After all, Sci Fi is often about complexity, technicalities, and minutiae. Honestly it all seemed so useless though. It could have been the group: I spent 4-6 hours making a character to play 2 combats, and spend another session just talking in character. Though that seems to be the trend for new games. The really dissapointing part though, was I have this awesome "Solarian" character that's able to use star power, or black hole energy to conjure weapons and perform cool stunts. Most of them are bland, like the "Solar Rush" which is just a charge while your on fire. I really don't 3 paragraphs of text to say "your character is on fire, and charges".
That's the beauty of games like OD&D, and RISUS: they get to the point. What's actually important about a Solar warrior? On fire. Star-powered weapon. Black hole gravity tricks. Bam. Done. Anyone who's DM'd old school D&D long enough would just add a +1 damage, or make a once per day 1d8 damage ability. That's how most of the old school stuff worked. Paladin: 2 points per level of healing per day. Ranger: 50% surprise. Stupid easy.
I'm not in a very eloquent mood right now, and part of that is what I've been working on lately, that's actually useful. I'm still trying to get down the most effecient way of doing it, but I'm trying to pull all of the "important stuff", or as RISUS would put it "cliches" out of all the RPGs I like. Look up RISUS, and you'll see what I'm talking about.
There's a lot more to say about RPGs, like how after actually going through most of the books and PDFs I've owned, I realized most Monsters and Magic (the main content of RPGs) is just kind of bland reskins and rehashes. I don't want to be to negative though. I'll say this: there are a lot of cool old school resources out there you should check out if you never have:
Don't expect much on here anymore. Who knows I might start writing again, but there's really not much to say once you realize it's all just a game. More rules is never going to make that fun. Recent experiences with Starfinder have shown me that. I was super excited to play, and I figured being Sci Fi, all the rules wouldn't seem out of place. After all, Sci Fi is often about complexity, technicalities, and minutiae. Honestly it all seemed so useless though. It could have been the group: I spent 4-6 hours making a character to play 2 combats, and spend another session just talking in character. Though that seems to be the trend for new games. The really dissapointing part though, was I have this awesome "Solarian" character that's able to use star power, or black hole energy to conjure weapons and perform cool stunts. Most of them are bland, like the "Solar Rush" which is just a charge while your on fire. I really don't 3 paragraphs of text to say "your character is on fire, and charges".
That's the beauty of games like OD&D, and RISUS: they get to the point. What's actually important about a Solar warrior? On fire. Star-powered weapon. Black hole gravity tricks. Bam. Done. Anyone who's DM'd old school D&D long enough would just add a +1 damage, or make a once per day 1d8 damage ability. That's how most of the old school stuff worked. Paladin: 2 points per level of healing per day. Ranger: 50% surprise. Stupid easy.
I'm not in a very eloquent mood right now, and part of that is what I've been working on lately, that's actually useful. I'm still trying to get down the most effecient way of doing it, but I'm trying to pull all of the "important stuff", or as RISUS would put it "cliches" out of all the RPGs I like. Look up RISUS, and you'll see what I'm talking about.
There's a lot more to say about RPGs, like how after actually going through most of the books and PDFs I've owned, I realized most Monsters and Magic (the main content of RPGs) is just kind of bland reskins and rehashes. I don't want to be to negative though. I'll say this: there are a lot of cool old school resources out there you should check out if you never have:
- Chaosium's All the World's Monsters
- Palladium RIFTS & Palladium Fantasy RPG*
- Arduin Grimoire Series
After everything I've gone through, those seem to have the most genuinely interesting stuff. I don't need four types of bird men with funny names, and I certainly don't need another type of dragon. What I do want are more flying sharks and squids. More tattoo magic, even if the effects are the same, the description is cool.
*RIFTS is one of the most controversial RPGs because the rule books is supposedly poorly organized. Honestly I think the only complicated part is the attribute abbreviates, since they all start with a P or S. In either case, it's basically heavily house ruled 1E D&D. It's extremely easy to just take the concepts and stat/use them for OD&D. After all, it's just Hit Dice, AC, Damage, and Special Abilities. Furthermore RIFTS is one of the few games with lots of genuinely different stuff.
My latest foray, that I'm on my way for another session of, is using OD&D with RIFTS. It's going quite well. There's not much to say on it, other than it's been a blast, and I have good friends who just want to have fun and do cool stuff, so no one really cares about the rules.
That's all for now, I might update some ideas I have, or figure out something useful to contribute.
Sunday, March 11, 2018
Finally Figured it Out - How I'm play Arcane Adventures
Certain Referees are able to just run games off the fly. In fact, most participants (players and referees) are able to come up with plenty of fun interactions on the spot. Most old school games work this way. There is less preparation for the character, and what they are normally able to do, and just improvisation. What will try in this scenario, given the circumstances?
Furthermore, I've never really used prepared gaming material as it was intended. I rarely use the monsters stat block, especially because I'm using so many different systems for material (D&D, Runequest, Rolemaster, Pathfinder, Palladium/Rifts, TV Shows, etc.). Thinking about all of this, I've realized I only need ideas. I don't eve need full ideas, or descriptions, usually a name is plenty enough to spark inspiration.
I could go on at length about players not needing much either. Often they just want to play a concept, and that really just amounts to calling their characters that concept. Old school players, or completely new players, are either indifferent to mechanical differences, or just don't know about them. In fact I'm sure I've blogged before about how the real fun of RPG's are just the descriptions.
In old school play, in particular, the description can be the mechanic. In OD&D there is no rules difference between an axe, sword, or spear: they all do 1-6 damage. There is a big difference between those weapons however: some can only be used for slashing, others can thrust, and still some can shatter or break. When you're trying to fend off a monster on the other side of a gate, which weapon can you attack with? The spear can easily slide through the bars, so can the sword; your axe however is almost useless. On the other hand, if you're trying to escape a room, and break down a door, the axe is the ideal tool.
This extends to everything in the game. Do we really need rules to tell us that a fire breathing dragon is immune to a fireball attack? This is where I'm at in my gaming, and it's been great. We've played quite a bit like this, and it always goes really well. Granted, it requires a cooperative play group, usually good friends. All we do is use logic, and discussion to determine what can work, what doesn't, and really what just makes sense.
With all of that said, my latest project, and all I'm doing now is just collecting lists of ideas from any source. Most are just consisting of names, though some creatures like an aboleth do require some description. A Hawk-Man, or Giant Ant is pretty self explanatory. I'm doing this for race and class as well. If you are an Elf Wizard, or a Human Cyber-Knight, you are just that. I'm only using the Fighting-Man and Magic-User from OD&D for rules, the the rest is just description for the player's sake.
Much like Arneson's games, the idea is that you are supposed to play like your character. What would a Beastman do? How would a Dwarf Druid act?
As for rules, I've come up with a simple mash up of OD&D, Microlite20, and some modern RPGs. The rules are not hard and fast, but provide a meaningful outline for gameplay progression, and task resolution - where it is necessary. I'll post the rules in my next post.
Furthermore, I've never really used prepared gaming material as it was intended. I rarely use the monsters stat block, especially because I'm using so many different systems for material (D&D, Runequest, Rolemaster, Pathfinder, Palladium/Rifts, TV Shows, etc.). Thinking about all of this, I've realized I only need ideas. I don't eve need full ideas, or descriptions, usually a name is plenty enough to spark inspiration.
I could go on at length about players not needing much either. Often they just want to play a concept, and that really just amounts to calling their characters that concept. Old school players, or completely new players, are either indifferent to mechanical differences, or just don't know about them. In fact I'm sure I've blogged before about how the real fun of RPG's are just the descriptions.
In old school play, in particular, the description can be the mechanic. In OD&D there is no rules difference between an axe, sword, or spear: they all do 1-6 damage. There is a big difference between those weapons however: some can only be used for slashing, others can thrust, and still some can shatter or break. When you're trying to fend off a monster on the other side of a gate, which weapon can you attack with? The spear can easily slide through the bars, so can the sword; your axe however is almost useless. On the other hand, if you're trying to escape a room, and break down a door, the axe is the ideal tool.
This extends to everything in the game. Do we really need rules to tell us that a fire breathing dragon is immune to a fireball attack? This is where I'm at in my gaming, and it's been great. We've played quite a bit like this, and it always goes really well. Granted, it requires a cooperative play group, usually good friends. All we do is use logic, and discussion to determine what can work, what doesn't, and really what just makes sense.
With all of that said, my latest project, and all I'm doing now is just collecting lists of ideas from any source. Most are just consisting of names, though some creatures like an aboleth do require some description. A Hawk-Man, or Giant Ant is pretty self explanatory. I'm doing this for race and class as well. If you are an Elf Wizard, or a Human Cyber-Knight, you are just that. I'm only using the Fighting-Man and Magic-User from OD&D for rules, the the rest is just description for the player's sake.
Much like Arneson's games, the idea is that you are supposed to play like your character. What would a Beastman do? How would a Dwarf Druid act?
As for rules, I've come up with a simple mash up of OD&D, Microlite20, and some modern RPGs. The rules are not hard and fast, but provide a meaningful outline for gameplay progression, and task resolution - where it is necessary. I'll post the rules in my next post.
Monday, January 30, 2017
Talkin' Bout My Generation
I don't know where to start with this one. I'll just dive in: I don't think my generation can play old school D&D. I think I've talked about this before. Playing yesterday really cements my thought on this. I tried running a really Arneson-style, weird fantasy game yesterday. I pretty much turned into rules light Pathfinder.
Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun yesterday. Taking inspiration from a lot of the games I heard about in the great lakes area, especial Dave Arneson's games, and really taking to heart the little quip (I think it's in the LBB's) that players can play WHATEVER they want, I let the player's have at it.
One player had a really cool idea, that was truly new and unique: She played an old testament Angel. Not like a beautiful person with wings, but the sphere of rings, on fire, covered in eyes. It was interesting to referee her actions, but over all it was cool. We decided she was made of ectoplasm, a sort of ghost, and that all her attacks were essentially unarmed, and just her shaping her ectoplasm in creative ways.
However, everyone else was just modern fantasy tropes: A couple "benders" like in Avatar (a fire bender and air bender), a Witcher (like Geralt), a Werwolf, etc. I have no problem with this, but I think I'm just tired of "creativity", because it's not feeling very creative. I don't blame the players, and we all had fun, but I think people now a days just aren't well read enough to play old school D&D, in this style. The media everyone is exposed to is just over the top, fireball slinging, magic as technology stuff. It's fine if that's what you're into, but there's already Pathfinder and Exalted if you want to play Medieval X-Men.
Which leads me to something that's been bugging me lately: Dungeon World and D&D 5E. I've heard so many reviews, and play reports of these games, that really bug. They talk about how creative they get to be, and how it's so "roleplaying" focused. How they don't have to just attack in every encounter. My two thoughts are: Why not just play old school D&D? The other thought: How is playing a fireball shooting, flying Druid creative, when everyone is doing that?
I don't know, I could go into a long rant, but I think anyone who would read this blog already feels the way I do about this. People can say that old school D&D is written to vaguely or obtusely, and that DW/5E is great because it really codifies the "game as a narrative experience", but all of the OSR games, even Microilte74 (for example), and the numerous blogs and player's have been saying this for ages. I just don't get it. It just annoys, because for the longest time, the OSR was treated with a lot of hostility from mainstream gaming, now they're hijacking our playstyle and claiming it for themselves, acting like they're so innovative.
The thing is, they're not playing old school. They're not being creative. They're just playing Super Heroes in Medieval Times. Sure you're describing your fire attack with a lot of detail, but you can't think to hide in the pile of leaves? Or run a rope across the causeway to trip the enemy as they run by? I'm not being very creative right now, but I think you'll get my point.
Just as one example, I read a Dungeon World play report where the players had rigged a "Magical electricity bomb" to a ballistae. How is that creative? You're just using Magic to replace technology, making EMP artillery. One of my players rigged a ballistae to shoot nets. I think that's a bit more creative: It's solving problems within the confines of the scenario you are placed into.
Anyway, I think I'm just kind of going to give up on running old school D&D in any sort of "creative" or "imaginative" way. At least on the player's side. I've decided I'm either going to run more historical games in the future, because I enjoy them, or run by the book OD&D/AD&D if I really want fantasy. I'm just tired of this generations interpretation of fantasy and adventure. At least I know I enjoy running pseudo-historical games, and I can get into that. With OD&D/AD&D by the book, I may not get to play Arneson, Arduin, or even Runequest syle games with Psychotic Duck men, and half-Alligator-half-Frog races, but I could at least throw them at players as monsters. Maybe forcing players to be confined to more "human" roles would encourage them to actually think outside of the box.
I'm also just kind of sick and tired of magic. A purely medieval game would certainly solve that problem, allowing me to slip in magic on my own terms, making it rare and truly special. If I ever do run fantasy games in the future, I actually think they will look more like the Witcher or Dark Souls series. Those are honestly a couple pieces of modern fantasy, that I think hit the root of what makes old school so fun. They are difficult, and you're character isn't some superhero, just a guy trying to survive. I've always enjoyed magic from games like the Witcher more anyway, such as in Runequest, or the Sword of Truth/Legend of the Seeker series. I think a Wizard's fire ball shouldn't be a firestorm of Hell on Earth, just a fire ball. That's plenty fantastic in and of itself.
More so, I think I'd like to actually start running some games that are actually different than what everyone else offers now a days. I had hoped that could be OD&D the way it was played back in the day. I still could, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Carcosa, and many other OSR games, show that's still viable. It just seems to me (from play experience now) that it's entirely up to the Referee to make it work, and honestly I just don't see enough people now a days understanding those kinds of games. My first play group understood it pretty well, but then again we all grew up on the same shows, books, and even did Medieval reenacting together.
I think I want to make some interesting campaign settings I haven't seen yet, like a blend of Samurai and Vikings, or make a Medieval RPG that sticks around for a while. I think Ars Magica is gone, and games like Blue Rose are cool, but I haven't heard anything from them in a while, though I think Dark Albion may be what I'm looking for. More importantly, I want to start making settings/adventures/games that emphasize the fantasy materials I grew up with: Robin Hood, Arthurian Legend, Fairy Tales, Historical Fantasy, Redwall, etc...
Anyway, stay Zen guys.
Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun yesterday. Taking inspiration from a lot of the games I heard about in the great lakes area, especial Dave Arneson's games, and really taking to heart the little quip (I think it's in the LBB's) that players can play WHATEVER they want, I let the player's have at it.
One player had a really cool idea, that was truly new and unique: She played an old testament Angel. Not like a beautiful person with wings, but the sphere of rings, on fire, covered in eyes. It was interesting to referee her actions, but over all it was cool. We decided she was made of ectoplasm, a sort of ghost, and that all her attacks were essentially unarmed, and just her shaping her ectoplasm in creative ways.
However, everyone else was just modern fantasy tropes: A couple "benders" like in Avatar (a fire bender and air bender), a Witcher (like Geralt), a Werwolf, etc. I have no problem with this, but I think I'm just tired of "creativity", because it's not feeling very creative. I don't blame the players, and we all had fun, but I think people now a days just aren't well read enough to play old school D&D, in this style. The media everyone is exposed to is just over the top, fireball slinging, magic as technology stuff. It's fine if that's what you're into, but there's already Pathfinder and Exalted if you want to play Medieval X-Men.
Which leads me to something that's been bugging me lately: Dungeon World and D&D 5E. I've heard so many reviews, and play reports of these games, that really bug. They talk about how creative they get to be, and how it's so "roleplaying" focused. How they don't have to just attack in every encounter. My two thoughts are: Why not just play old school D&D? The other thought: How is playing a fireball shooting, flying Druid creative, when everyone is doing that?
I don't know, I could go into a long rant, but I think anyone who would read this blog already feels the way I do about this. People can say that old school D&D is written to vaguely or obtusely, and that DW/5E is great because it really codifies the "game as a narrative experience", but all of the OSR games, even Microilte74 (for example), and the numerous blogs and player's have been saying this for ages. I just don't get it. It just annoys, because for the longest time, the OSR was treated with a lot of hostility from mainstream gaming, now they're hijacking our playstyle and claiming it for themselves, acting like they're so innovative.
The thing is, they're not playing old school. They're not being creative. They're just playing Super Heroes in Medieval Times. Sure you're describing your fire attack with a lot of detail, but you can't think to hide in the pile of leaves? Or run a rope across the causeway to trip the enemy as they run by? I'm not being very creative right now, but I think you'll get my point.
Just as one example, I read a Dungeon World play report where the players had rigged a "Magical electricity bomb" to a ballistae. How is that creative? You're just using Magic to replace technology, making EMP artillery. One of my players rigged a ballistae to shoot nets. I think that's a bit more creative: It's solving problems within the confines of the scenario you are placed into.
Anyway, I think I'm just kind of going to give up on running old school D&D in any sort of "creative" or "imaginative" way. At least on the player's side. I've decided I'm either going to run more historical games in the future, because I enjoy them, or run by the book OD&D/AD&D if I really want fantasy. I'm just tired of this generations interpretation of fantasy and adventure. At least I know I enjoy running pseudo-historical games, and I can get into that. With OD&D/AD&D by the book, I may not get to play Arneson, Arduin, or even Runequest syle games with Psychotic Duck men, and half-Alligator-half-Frog races, but I could at least throw them at players as monsters. Maybe forcing players to be confined to more "human" roles would encourage them to actually think outside of the box.
I'm also just kind of sick and tired of magic. A purely medieval game would certainly solve that problem, allowing me to slip in magic on my own terms, making it rare and truly special. If I ever do run fantasy games in the future, I actually think they will look more like the Witcher or Dark Souls series. Those are honestly a couple pieces of modern fantasy, that I think hit the root of what makes old school so fun. They are difficult, and you're character isn't some superhero, just a guy trying to survive. I've always enjoyed magic from games like the Witcher more anyway, such as in Runequest, or the Sword of Truth/Legend of the Seeker series. I think a Wizard's fire ball shouldn't be a firestorm of Hell on Earth, just a fire ball. That's plenty fantastic in and of itself.
More so, I think I'd like to actually start running some games that are actually different than what everyone else offers now a days. I had hoped that could be OD&D the way it was played back in the day. I still could, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Carcosa, and many other OSR games, show that's still viable. It just seems to me (from play experience now) that it's entirely up to the Referee to make it work, and honestly I just don't see enough people now a days understanding those kinds of games. My first play group understood it pretty well, but then again we all grew up on the same shows, books, and even did Medieval reenacting together.
I think I want to make some interesting campaign settings I haven't seen yet, like a blend of Samurai and Vikings, or make a Medieval RPG that sticks around for a while. I think Ars Magica is gone, and games like Blue Rose are cool, but I haven't heard anything from them in a while, though I think Dark Albion may be what I'm looking for. More importantly, I want to start making settings/adventures/games that emphasize the fantasy materials I grew up with: Robin Hood, Arthurian Legend, Fairy Tales, Historical Fantasy, Redwall, etc...
Anyway, stay Zen guys.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Microlite AD&D: Classes
I keep talking about it, so might as well post something. This is just a quick draft of ideas for classes. I've been working longer days, so I don't have a lot of time this week, but I felt like putting this out here.
Keep in mind, these are actually how I run my AD&D games. I had a very successful campaign using a set up similar to this. In fact, I very well might post the rules from one of the campaigns my players enjoyed most. That was "Arcane Adventures" at the time. Any, I digress, here's some class outlines for you.
These options are compatible with either OSR/AD&D material, or d20/SRD material. In my research I have actually found the math to be similar, not equal, but similar. SRD Monsters would probably be tougher. If using OSR/AD&D material, use B/X style attribute bonuses (up to +3). If using d20/SRD Material use 3E's attribute bonuses (up to +5). Weapons and Armor (as well as Hit Dice) restrictions are as per AD&D, or one could ignore them in the fashion of Microlite20, especially if using the SRD as your source material.
Class Abilities
Fighter: Double Strength bonus to Damage rolls. Reroll any one's on damage dice. Fighter's gain an extra attack at 10th level.
Barbarian: Double Dexterity bonus to Armor Class, Double Constitution bonus to Hit Points.
Ranger: Ranger's can dual wield with no penalty, and are allowed two attacks per turn with ranged weapons. Ranger's have a 50% chance for surprise.
Thief: Thieves have a 50% chance for surprise and sneaking during combat. Thieves may back stab, granting a +4 bonus if they have surprise or have successfully sneaked the round before attacking. Successful attacks are double damage.
Paladin: Paladin's may lay on hands for 1d6 hit points healed per level, on themselves or any ally. Once a day Paladin's may Smite an enemy, adding their level to attack roll and damage.
Monk: Monk's have an unarmed attack of 1d8, attacking twice per turn. Monks add half their level to their Armor Class.
Wizard/Magic-User: May cast spells as usual.
Clerics: May cast spells as usual. Once a day Cleric's may Smite enemies in the same way Paladin's do.
Druid: May cast spells as usual. At 5th level, Druid's may change shape into that of an animal, once per day, changing back at will for the remainder of the day. When changing shape, hit points and attack bonus stay the same, as well as all attributes. Instead, Druid's gain the movement, and attack abilities of the creature they transform into, as well as any role playing abilities adjudicated by the Referee.
Bard: Bard's may cast spells as usual (using either the Illusionist's spell list, if using OSR material, or the Bard's list if using SRD material). Once during each combat, Bard's can inspire their allies, add +1 to ANY die rolls made during that turn.
There are many ways to change the above of course, and expand them for a more "mechanically interesting game". Monk's attacks could increase with level (as they do in AD&D), Ranger, and Thief skills could start lower, and increase over time.
I'll probably post the full concept later. Stay Zen guys.
Keep in mind, these are actually how I run my AD&D games. I had a very successful campaign using a set up similar to this. In fact, I very well might post the rules from one of the campaigns my players enjoyed most. That was "Arcane Adventures" at the time. Any, I digress, here's some class outlines for you.
Compatibility
These options are compatible with either OSR/AD&D material, or d20/SRD material. In my research I have actually found the math to be similar, not equal, but similar. SRD Monsters would probably be tougher. If using OSR/AD&D material, use B/X style attribute bonuses (up to +3). If using d20/SRD Material use 3E's attribute bonuses (up to +5). Weapons and Armor (as well as Hit Dice) restrictions are as per AD&D, or one could ignore them in the fashion of Microlite20, especially if using the SRD as your source material.
Class Abilities
Fighter: Double Strength bonus to Damage rolls. Reroll any one's on damage dice. Fighter's gain an extra attack at 10th level.
Barbarian: Double Dexterity bonus to Armor Class, Double Constitution bonus to Hit Points.
Ranger: Ranger's can dual wield with no penalty, and are allowed two attacks per turn with ranged weapons. Ranger's have a 50% chance for surprise.
Thief: Thieves have a 50% chance for surprise and sneaking during combat. Thieves may back stab, granting a +4 bonus if they have surprise or have successfully sneaked the round before attacking. Successful attacks are double damage.
Paladin: Paladin's may lay on hands for 1d6 hit points healed per level, on themselves or any ally. Once a day Paladin's may Smite an enemy, adding their level to attack roll and damage.
Monk: Monk's have an unarmed attack of 1d8, attacking twice per turn. Monks add half their level to their Armor Class.
Wizard/Magic-User: May cast spells as usual.
Clerics: May cast spells as usual. Once a day Cleric's may Smite enemies in the same way Paladin's do.
Druid: May cast spells as usual. At 5th level, Druid's may change shape into that of an animal, once per day, changing back at will for the remainder of the day. When changing shape, hit points and attack bonus stay the same, as well as all attributes. Instead, Druid's gain the movement, and attack abilities of the creature they transform into, as well as any role playing abilities adjudicated by the Referee.
Bard: Bard's may cast spells as usual (using either the Illusionist's spell list, if using OSR material, or the Bard's list if using SRD material). Once during each combat, Bard's can inspire their allies, add +1 to ANY die rolls made during that turn.
There are many ways to change the above of course, and expand them for a more "mechanically interesting game". Monk's attacks could increase with level (as they do in AD&D), Ranger, and Thief skills could start lower, and increase over time.
I'll probably post the full concept later. Stay Zen guys.
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Current Projects
Just thought I'd share the projects I'm currently working on, maybe it will inspire some people. Hopefully I can post what I've done with some of them, but I'm noticing my motivation to actually do stuff is non-existent. I want to do stuff, but as soon as I sit down to do it, I don't know where to start. Oh well.
The project requiring my immediate attention is my upcoming OD&D campaign. A bunch of people I work with at my new job have asked me to DM for them, and of course I'll be bringing in some of my other friends as well. Looks like it's going to be a 10+ person campaign, with different people showing up each time. Very old school, very Great Lakes era style. With that in mind, I'm planning on doing a sort of episodic sand box campaign, as per the way I've heard the original campaigns went.
This time I'm going for more of a Blackmoor feel. I mean, my campaigns have never been too generic, I've always let people play odd races, and I love including strange creatures like Air Sharks (I love Air Sharks!, from Arduin I believe). The idea this time though is to turn it up to 11. Not in any sort of ridiculous way, but definitely a sort of He-Man/Masters of the Universe type game. I mean, I've heard that's the way Blackmoor was, but I haven't read any of the actual Blackmoor material yet, having been more in favor of Gygaxian D&D. Though I'll definitely be reading up on it now, I'm finding I like Arneson's play style and advice much more than Gary's.
Anyway, I'm also doing this because I should be able to prep in a way that I'm used to, and is easy. I don't intend to make any sort of megadungeon, maybe a few "five room" dungeons, scattered about. Instead it's going to be very much "You're hanging out at the castle, when news of <insert event> reaches you!". I want there to be options, so of course they can wander the castle halls chatting with friendly NPCs for quest ideas, such as "Orko lost his magic amulet in the swamp, you should go fetch it for him... Watch out for Dinosaurs though!". To necessitate easy travel I'm going to give all the players a special mount, that can't fight (at first), and let them pick something fun or crazy to set the mood (Tiger Griffins!).
My next project is an AD&D rules compilation. I'm thinking initially this will be a Microlite20 style reference document. However eventually I want to compile rules and advice from a few sources verbatim. I obviously won't be sharing this. It has two real purposes. The first being a play document, so I can give my 80's copies of AD&D books a break. I mean, they are really robust for being older than me, and I love them, but I don't want clumsy players destroying my books. The second reason, is simply to put all the good AD&D (not just from AD&D) advice and options into one place.
I'm not playing on doing much house ruling with this. The biggest house rule would be a Bard that casts Illusionists spells, and maybe using Castles & Crusades Attribute Saving Throws. Other than that I just want to be able to run old school D&D dungeon crawls, megadungeons, and maybe some classic modules. A side project for this as a super campaign, Basically a giant, completely (as much as possible) detailed campaign setting, filled in with material from old school modules (like Temple of Elemental Evil), and any material I can convert/lift from old school Computer RPGs. An all around classic and generic fantasy setting.
This is the project I've been wanting to do for the longest time, but seems to have the least interest from anyone else. I'll be doing this purely for myself, regardless of whether I ever get to run it. I would say it's an exercise in world building, but it would be more of a compilation than creation. It wouldn't be straight historical, but anachronistic. The main idea is to provide a fully detailed medieval world to explore, complete with Knights, Castles, Dungeons, and so forth. I would use real life locales, as well as some taken from the more medieval leaning sources, such as Lord of the Rings, Elder Scrolls, etc.
For rules I would mostly use AD&D, with some ideas taken from Runequest, and Pendragon. Other than that, the main portion of work would be in detailing towns (NPC lists, some minor sites to explore), and quests that can be issued from the towns, as well as a decent amount of wilderness locales and encounters found between towns. Most combats would be against other knights, brigands, and so forth, but I would definitely include classic medieval and mythical beasts such as Dragons, and Chimeras, and of course wild animals. Just nothing that's overtly fantasy or weird, like no Orcs or Elves. Classes would obviously be limited to Fighters, Rangers, and so forth. I'm debating Clerics.
This is the biggest project, and most useful I hope. If you're not familiar with commonplace books, do a quick google search, ,they are fantastic. I've been in the habit of keeping one for some time now, in regards to just general reading and interests. They are invaluable. Essentially a notebook full of random interesting facts.
The idea behind this would be to simply keep an ongoing notebook full of ideas for D&D; monsters, encounters, challenges, puzzles, locales, quests, etc. Anything really. I'm thinking I'm going to separate it into at least four parts for now: Adventure Ideas (quests, challenges, locales), Bestiary, Spells & Magic, and finally Referee Advice. I think each is self explanatory. Spells & Magic, though, will not be just player spells. Literally any magic I come across, as I can use that against players, should I so choose. The Monster book will probably only contain the stats of Armor Class, Hit Dice, Damage, and whatever physical description is provided with any special abilities (not the full mechanics for them, but possibly). No full stat blocks, and no six paragraph explanation of history and mating habits.
Essentially a revamp of my tabletop roguelike idea. I've waxed on about this idea for a long time, and I think the hardest problem I've had with it is trying to keep it a role playing game in some capacity. What I've come to realize lately, is that I've never really had a problem with rules from any RPG, I've just been experiencing DM burnout. The worst part of it is, whenever I don't DM, we don't play. I want to take a break from DMing, but not tabletop. When I don't play at all (DMing included) I get restless, because I want to do something fantasy gaming related. In the end I always end up running another game, just to do something, and I end up more burn out than last time.
What I want to make with this, is something that can give me a break from DMing, but still let my play some fantasy gaming. I recently read a post from one of my favorite blogs that inspired me further with this: Arena Xagyg. I may end up trying to play Pathfinder this way. I actually had a similar idea a while ago, run a Pathfinder 3E game that was just a sort of Battlespire rip off. Players are tested by some Mad Wizard/Warlord to compete in his "Game of Death". It would be easy to prep because it would just be a selection of monsters, and maybe some sort of environmental interactions. I may still do this, but it's more just given me some ideas for how I could handle my roguelike board game.
I have much more to say about all of the above projects, so hopefully I'll post some stuff soon.
Stay Zen my Friends.
OD&D Campaign
The project requiring my immediate attention is my upcoming OD&D campaign. A bunch of people I work with at my new job have asked me to DM for them, and of course I'll be bringing in some of my other friends as well. Looks like it's going to be a 10+ person campaign, with different people showing up each time. Very old school, very Great Lakes era style. With that in mind, I'm planning on doing a sort of episodic sand box campaign, as per the way I've heard the original campaigns went.
This time I'm going for more of a Blackmoor feel. I mean, my campaigns have never been too generic, I've always let people play odd races, and I love including strange creatures like Air Sharks (I love Air Sharks!, from Arduin I believe). The idea this time though is to turn it up to 11. Not in any sort of ridiculous way, but definitely a sort of He-Man/Masters of the Universe type game. I mean, I've heard that's the way Blackmoor was, but I haven't read any of the actual Blackmoor material yet, having been more in favor of Gygaxian D&D. Though I'll definitely be reading up on it now, I'm finding I like Arneson's play style and advice much more than Gary's.
Anyway, I'm also doing this because I should be able to prep in a way that I'm used to, and is easy. I don't intend to make any sort of megadungeon, maybe a few "five room" dungeons, scattered about. Instead it's going to be very much "You're hanging out at the castle, when news of <insert event> reaches you!". I want there to be options, so of course they can wander the castle halls chatting with friendly NPCs for quest ideas, such as "Orko lost his magic amulet in the swamp, you should go fetch it for him... Watch out for Dinosaurs though!". To necessitate easy travel I'm going to give all the players a special mount, that can't fight (at first), and let them pick something fun or crazy to set the mood (Tiger Griffins!).
AD&D Rules Compilation
My next project is an AD&D rules compilation. I'm thinking initially this will be a Microlite20 style reference document. However eventually I want to compile rules and advice from a few sources verbatim. I obviously won't be sharing this. It has two real purposes. The first being a play document, so I can give my 80's copies of AD&D books a break. I mean, they are really robust for being older than me, and I love them, but I don't want clumsy players destroying my books. The second reason, is simply to put all the good AD&D (not just from AD&D) advice and options into one place.
I'm not playing on doing much house ruling with this. The biggest house rule would be a Bard that casts Illusionists spells, and maybe using Castles & Crusades Attribute Saving Throws. Other than that I just want to be able to run old school D&D dungeon crawls, megadungeons, and maybe some classic modules. A side project for this as a super campaign, Basically a giant, completely (as much as possible) detailed campaign setting, filled in with material from old school modules (like Temple of Elemental Evil), and any material I can convert/lift from old school Computer RPGs. An all around classic and generic fantasy setting.
Great Medieval Campaign
This is the project I've been wanting to do for the longest time, but seems to have the least interest from anyone else. I'll be doing this purely for myself, regardless of whether I ever get to run it. I would say it's an exercise in world building, but it would be more of a compilation than creation. It wouldn't be straight historical, but anachronistic. The main idea is to provide a fully detailed medieval world to explore, complete with Knights, Castles, Dungeons, and so forth. I would use real life locales, as well as some taken from the more medieval leaning sources, such as Lord of the Rings, Elder Scrolls, etc.
For rules I would mostly use AD&D, with some ideas taken from Runequest, and Pendragon. Other than that, the main portion of work would be in detailing towns (NPC lists, some minor sites to explore), and quests that can be issued from the towns, as well as a decent amount of wilderness locales and encounters found between towns. Most combats would be against other knights, brigands, and so forth, but I would definitely include classic medieval and mythical beasts such as Dragons, and Chimeras, and of course wild animals. Just nothing that's overtly fantasy or weird, like no Orcs or Elves. Classes would obviously be limited to Fighters, Rangers, and so forth. I'm debating Clerics.
Fantasy Gaming Commonplace Books
This is the biggest project, and most useful I hope. If you're not familiar with commonplace books, do a quick google search, ,they are fantastic. I've been in the habit of keeping one for some time now, in regards to just general reading and interests. They are invaluable. Essentially a notebook full of random interesting facts.
The idea behind this would be to simply keep an ongoing notebook full of ideas for D&D; monsters, encounters, challenges, puzzles, locales, quests, etc. Anything really. I'm thinking I'm going to separate it into at least four parts for now: Adventure Ideas (quests, challenges, locales), Bestiary, Spells & Magic, and finally Referee Advice. I think each is self explanatory. Spells & Magic, though, will not be just player spells. Literally any magic I come across, as I can use that against players, should I so choose. The Monster book will probably only contain the stats of Armor Class, Hit Dice, Damage, and whatever physical description is provided with any special abilities (not the full mechanics for them, but possibly). No full stat blocks, and no six paragraph explanation of history and mating habits.
Fantasy Board Game
Essentially a revamp of my tabletop roguelike idea. I've waxed on about this idea for a long time, and I think the hardest problem I've had with it is trying to keep it a role playing game in some capacity. What I've come to realize lately, is that I've never really had a problem with rules from any RPG, I've just been experiencing DM burnout. The worst part of it is, whenever I don't DM, we don't play. I want to take a break from DMing, but not tabletop. When I don't play at all (DMing included) I get restless, because I want to do something fantasy gaming related. In the end I always end up running another game, just to do something, and I end up more burn out than last time.
What I want to make with this, is something that can give me a break from DMing, but still let my play some fantasy gaming. I recently read a post from one of my favorite blogs that inspired me further with this: Arena Xagyg. I may end up trying to play Pathfinder this way. I actually had a similar idea a while ago, run a Pathfinder 3E game that was just a sort of Battlespire rip off. Players are tested by some Mad Wizard/Warlord to compete in his "Game of Death". It would be easy to prep because it would just be a selection of monsters, and maybe some sort of environmental interactions. I may still do this, but it's more just given me some ideas for how I could handle my roguelike board game.
I have much more to say about all of the above projects, so hopefully I'll post some stuff soon.
Stay Zen my Friends.
Monday, January 9, 2017
My Current OD&D House Rules
At the bottom of the post you'll find my current OD&D house rules, however first a word on how I got there.
For the last couple of days I've been giving much consideration to what my current set of house rules will look like. I had come to a decision that all classes would be functions of; Hit Dice, Attack Ability, Saving Throws, Spell ability, and Weapons & Armor Proficiency. This sounds like a lot when written out, but the key point here is: no special class abilities. This was my conclusion after re-reading my (DIY reproduction) copies of the LBB's.
If you look at White Box D&D, most of the rules are simply the above stated factors. The Cleric gets his Turn Undead (which I've never liked), and that's the only special class ability that looks anything like later class functions. There are skills, in the Referee's section, but they are limited and simple (which I like). If you think about it, the above mentioned functions are more than enough variation to make a mechanically interesting game.
I'll still be keeping my game along those lines. However what I was starting to do was veer close to AD&D. I thought it would be very simple to redo all of the AD&D classes in that fashion. Rangers would be a Fighter with more attacks, that are simply less accurate and less powerful. The Rogue/Thief could be handled similarly with no skills. Bards & Paladins would simply get spells as their special abilities (the Bard would replace the AD&D Illusionist).
The more I kept going along this train of thought though, it just felt like I was making AD&D light. Which isn't necessarily a bad idea. As I've said before, I'd like to do that, and I think I will one day. Let me know quote Geoffrey (of Carcosa fame) though:
"I kept re-inventing the wheel. Whether it was animals, giant animals, weapon types, etc. I kept finding it already done in AD&D.
In regards to 1970s-era AD&D, I do not think of it as fundamentally different than OD&D.
Which works better for Carcosa, OD&D or AD&D? I'd say whichever the DM would prefer. OD&D requires/allows for more re-inventing the wheel. (How may hit dice does a sabre-tooth cat have?) AD&D allows for more out-of-the-box play.
Sure, I still use stuff from the original Carcosa book in my campaign along with all the stuff in the modules. I didn't specifically refer to it in my four AD&D Carcosa modules because I didn't want anybody to think, "What!? Ihave to buy a $45 book before I can use this module! Man, was I jipped!" So you certainly can use the old Carcosa book with the modules, but doing is is 100% optional."
- Geoffrey (Carcosa) on the OD&D Forum
With that in mind, I think it's best to just play OD&D, as OD&D. I'll post my AD&D light rules later, or at least the concept of them. The following, now, will be what my current OD&D House Rules are.
At some future date, I will hopefully post a copy of a cleaned up document, similar to my Arcane Grimoire, which should still be up for download at the left.
Ability scores range from 3-18, with a score of 15+ granting a +1 in relevant areas: Strength can apply to attack and damage rolls. Dexterity can affect ranged attack rolls, and armor class. Constitution affects hit points gained per level. All scores will affect saving throws (taken from Castles & Crusades). Finally, Charisma will determine party leader.
There are four Classes: Fighter, Ranger, Paladin (Cleric), and Wizard (Magic-User). Fighter and Wizard are as they appear in White Box, except the Fighter has a d10 hit die.
Paladins will be included as the Cleric, but will essentially function as the Cleric. Since I'm probably just going to save myself some time and use the AD&D 1E spells, the Paladin will use that spell progression, but starting at 2nd level. They will be restricted to chain mail armor, but be allowed any weapon, and have a d8 hit die. This will give a nice distribution for armor and hit dice. They will not have a turn undead ability. Also I'm using the name Paladin just because I like the word better.
The Ranger will be included as my fourth class because I've started to loath Thieves, but I still like the idea of an agile class. The Ranger will be restricted to leather armor, be allowed any weapon, and have a d6 hit die. Rangers will be the only class to dual wield, allowing the (modern) expected two attacks per turn. With ranged weapons Rangers will get two attacks per turn.
As for Attack and Saving Throw Matrices, I'll be using Swords & Wizardry White Box, so the classes will most likely get their appropriately corresponding statistics.
The biggest reason for the above class changes is to simplify weapons and armor restrictions. I'd rather just let any class use any weapon (except the Wizard for obvious reasons), and then have them vary via the much simpler armor restrictions. Over all I don't think any of the above is too drastic of a change, and I think it will give me the game I want to run.
Honestly the class changes are the most drastic, and important to note. However, below are the rest of my thoughts at the moment, in a sort of miscellaneous fashion:
For the last couple of days I've been giving much consideration to what my current set of house rules will look like. I had come to a decision that all classes would be functions of; Hit Dice, Attack Ability, Saving Throws, Spell ability, and Weapons & Armor Proficiency. This sounds like a lot when written out, but the key point here is: no special class abilities. This was my conclusion after re-reading my (DIY reproduction) copies of the LBB's.
If you look at White Box D&D, most of the rules are simply the above stated factors. The Cleric gets his Turn Undead (which I've never liked), and that's the only special class ability that looks anything like later class functions. There are skills, in the Referee's section, but they are limited and simple (which I like). If you think about it, the above mentioned functions are more than enough variation to make a mechanically interesting game.
I'll still be keeping my game along those lines. However what I was starting to do was veer close to AD&D. I thought it would be very simple to redo all of the AD&D classes in that fashion. Rangers would be a Fighter with more attacks, that are simply less accurate and less powerful. The Rogue/Thief could be handled similarly with no skills. Bards & Paladins would simply get spells as their special abilities (the Bard would replace the AD&D Illusionist).
The more I kept going along this train of thought though, it just felt like I was making AD&D light. Which isn't necessarily a bad idea. As I've said before, I'd like to do that, and I think I will one day. Let me know quote Geoffrey (of Carcosa fame) though:
"I kept re-inventing the wheel. Whether it was animals, giant animals, weapon types, etc. I kept finding it already done in AD&D.
In regards to 1970s-era AD&D, I do not think of it as fundamentally different than OD&D.
Which works better for Carcosa, OD&D or AD&D? I'd say whichever the DM would prefer. OD&D requires/allows for more re-inventing the wheel. (How may hit dice does a sabre-tooth cat have?) AD&D allows for more out-of-the-box play.
Sure, I still use stuff from the original Carcosa book in my campaign along with all the stuff in the modules. I didn't specifically refer to it in my four AD&D Carcosa modules because I didn't want anybody to think, "What!? Ihave to buy a $45 book before I can use this module! Man, was I jipped!" So you certainly can use the old Carcosa book with the modules, but doing is is 100% optional."
- Geoffrey (Carcosa) on the OD&D Forum
With that in mind, I think it's best to just play OD&D, as OD&D. I'll post my AD&D light rules later, or at least the concept of them. The following, now, will be what my current OD&D House Rules are.
Current OD&D House Rules
At some future date, I will hopefully post a copy of a cleaned up document, similar to my Arcane Grimoire, which should still be up for download at the left.
Ability scores range from 3-18, with a score of 15+ granting a +1 in relevant areas: Strength can apply to attack and damage rolls. Dexterity can affect ranged attack rolls, and armor class. Constitution affects hit points gained per level. All scores will affect saving throws (taken from Castles & Crusades). Finally, Charisma will determine party leader.
There are four Classes: Fighter, Ranger, Paladin (Cleric), and Wizard (Magic-User). Fighter and Wizard are as they appear in White Box, except the Fighter has a d10 hit die.
Paladins will be included as the Cleric, but will essentially function as the Cleric. Since I'm probably just going to save myself some time and use the AD&D 1E spells, the Paladin will use that spell progression, but starting at 2nd level. They will be restricted to chain mail armor, but be allowed any weapon, and have a d8 hit die. This will give a nice distribution for armor and hit dice. They will not have a turn undead ability. Also I'm using the name Paladin just because I like the word better.
The Ranger will be included as my fourth class because I've started to loath Thieves, but I still like the idea of an agile class. The Ranger will be restricted to leather armor, be allowed any weapon, and have a d6 hit die. Rangers will be the only class to dual wield, allowing the (modern) expected two attacks per turn. With ranged weapons Rangers will get two attacks per turn.
As for Attack and Saving Throw Matrices, I'll be using Swords & Wizardry White Box, so the classes will most likely get their appropriately corresponding statistics.
The biggest reason for the above class changes is to simplify weapons and armor restrictions. I'd rather just let any class use any weapon (except the Wizard for obvious reasons), and then have them vary via the much simpler armor restrictions. Over all I don't think any of the above is too drastic of a change, and I think it will give me the game I want to run.
Honestly the class changes are the most drastic, and important to note. However, below are the rest of my thoughts at the moment, in a sort of miscellaneous fashion:
- "Magic" weapon bonuses only affect damage rolls, not to hit. This is to simplify things.
- Hit Dice will be rolled as best of two (roll two hit dice each level, taking the higher roll).
- Stealth is a function of party tactics. No class has a stealth ability; instead the entire party must work together to gain any effect to "surprise". Waiting in ambush (if they somehow have gained knowledge of the enemy, without the enemy being aware of the party) will grant a 4 in 6 (66%) chance of surprise.
- Common adventuring tasks can be checked as X in 6 chance, or corresponding percent (%) check. I will keep a list of common tasks (I'll share those later hopefully) and chances, recording new ones as I make rulings, or find them in various rule books. (I'll be checking OD&D, AD&D, Palladium, and Runequest leisurely.)
- All monster statistics will be determined as stated in my previous posts (simple Armor Class).
- No monsters will have paralysis abilities; it's boring and adds nothing to game play.
- Treasure is handled as in Swords & Wizardry; 2 - 4 times the XP value of an encounter; with a 50% chance of any encounter having treasure. Planned encounters being the exception. I'm considering a lower percent chance for wandering monsters.
- Magic items will be checked for separately from treasure. Treasure hordes above 1,000 gold pieces will have a 10% chance for magic items. Perhaps a higher percent with larger hoards.
- Magic classes will not be able to make scrolls. I think they get enough spells per day, and players have a predisposition to make fireball spells at higher levels.
- Critical Hits are maximum damage, not double.
- Any spells that have a duration are simply save till pass. This includes damage, or paralysis. (This one will need the most play testing, I'm sure)
- Spells and Magic Items taken from AD&D 1E. This is just to save time, and because I do still love AD&D.
I think that's it for now. I don't think that's quite too much.
Stay Zen my friends.
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