Chainmail Bikini

I have built it... now they come

2011-10-07T18:36:00.000+02:00

My posters went up at two local gaming stores.

And someone actually signed up!

I've already got a number of players through my postings at the corporate D&D interest group, as well as local gaming forums.

http://groups.google.com/group/west-marches-dnd

I just might pull this off...

Know Your Terrain III: Hills

2011-10-01T19:55:00.003+02:00

This is the third part in my series about expanding your knowledge of terrain. The goal is to provide variety of terrain descriptions for use in gaming.

Hills are common terrain feature that present a dangerous dynamic to an adventuring party. They slow movement, obstruct (or enhance) visibility, often include caves and gorges, and are home to a different variety of beasts and monsters.

Some different types of hills...

Hillock

A small hill, usually separated from a larger group of hills.

Ridge

A chain of hills that form a continuous elevated crest for some distance.

Bluff

Very steep and broad hill or small cliff, usually next to a river or lake.

Hills are home to predators such as bears and mountain lions.

Happy hill hunting!

Quick and Dirty Swords & Sorcery Words

2011-09-22T06:55:00.002+02:00

Use the intertubes... trust their awesomeness.

Google Translate was a fantastic tool when I was living in Basel and my Deutsch was not very good.

Now I use it translate "common" Swords & Sorcery words into Swahili equivalents to generate a pool of themed words I can use for place names, etc.

Check it out!

Got Maps?

2011-09-13T01:11:00.004+02:00

Clearly I have a problem with commitment.

One of these days I will launch...

Know Your Terrain Part II: Scrublands

2011-09-10T16:59:00.004+02:00

In my last post I discussed the different types of sub-terrain under the Plains & Grasslands category.

This week, I'm hitting the Scrublands. When calculating overland travel, scrubland should reduce movement rates by 20%.

Veldt: wide open rural spaces covered in grass or low scrub; an undeveloped, un-forested field (paddock)

Bush: short trees with multiple low stems

Brush: dominated by shrubs; often subject to fires

Bracken: large, coarse ferns in dense clusters

Know Your Terrain Part I: Plains

2011-09-05T01:40:00.008+02:00

My setting design has reached the stage where I need to begin creating wilderness encounter tables for the various zones I have created.

Why reinvent the wheel? I did some quick internet searching and discovered a great review by Jim M. over at Grognardia, where he sings the praises of a handy and crunchy 160-page "Old School Encounters Reference" by Scot "Kellri" Hoover.

I immediately jumped to the Wilderness Encounters section and was delighted with what I found. Kellri segmented the terrain into groups, with different sub-types listed. I enjoyed this immensely, as it provided a richer vocabulary. Why wander through plains when you can trundle across moors? Who wants to slog through a marsh when a morass is nearby? Don't settle for a mountain when a tor is available.

But what exactly are all of these wonderful things?

This is the first in a multi-part post covering each of the major terrain types. Today's special?

The Plains

Steppe: grassland plains without trees (apart from those near rivers and lakes); may be semi-desert, or covered with grass or shrubs depending on season; too dry to support forest, but not dry enough to be desert

Prairie: temperate grasslands with moderate rainfall; dominated by grasses, herbs and shrubs rather than trees

Heath: dominated by dwarf-shrubs in low quality soils; open, low growing woody vegetation

Moor: similar to heath, but typically in upland areas or uncultivated hill land; higher rainfall than heath

Downs: an area of open chalk hills, raised above the surrounding rocks; dry valleys or coombes, and seasonal streams; thin soil overlay

Meadow, Grassland: field of grass and other non-woody plants

Hopefully the imagery will tweak some ideas for you to improve how you visualize the scene for your players.

Tune in for the next episode, where I'll cover Scrubland.

Dungeon Crawl + Lego = Fun!

2011-09-04T06:53:00.004+02:00

I saw the Lego "Heroica" game in a toy store a few months ago and finally got my hands on the biggest of the four modules - "Castle Fortaan".

My twins boys are nearly six years old and have greatly enjoyed the "Minotaur" Lego game, but I was not sure if they'd be able to grasp the many rules involved in the "Heroica" games (it's for 8+ years). But they did fine and are having a blast.

The design is great - there are four playable characters (microfigures) in this box set: barbarian, knight, druid and magician. Each has a special power that is activated either in move/range or in melee when you roll the "shield" on the special d6 dice (1/6 chance).

Each box set contains a variety of build-able dungeon "tiles" that connect together to form a mission. There are three mission maps in the "Castle Fortaan" box, and they are part of a storyline (goblins have invaded the kingdom through some sort of magical rift).

The game mechanics are simple and enjoyable. Lego has added animated movies that show how to play the game (http://heroica.lego.com/en-us/howtoplay/default.aspx), and it's very helpful.

Thankfully, the instructions come in both American and Canadian, which is great, because I'm from The Great Whyte North where There Be Dragons.

You can move, fight, pick locks, open treasure chests (which may be trapped!), use potions, collect gold to buy weapons, and use special abilities.

I'm looking forward to picking up the other three box sets, and maybe the special "collector edition carry case" that comes with a map.

Yes... I'm indoctrinating my children in the dark arts. We listen to classic rock and heavy metal while we play.

Too much

2011-08-09T06:34:00.002+02:00

OK, I know it was too much.

Waaaaay over the line.

And this is why I'm still fiddling and not playing. I get too fixated on tweaking a good system and when I'm "ready" I take a step back and realize that I'm very far off of the path.

Yesterday's post is a case in point.

I'd rather not hack out the entire magic system. So I'm turning to some inspiration from The World of Xoth setting. Instead of a wholesale change, I'll just combine the Magic-user/Cleric and create a custom spell list that is 80% standard, with some modifications and new spells thrown in there to make up for the ones I remove.

As for the Elf/Warrior-monk... I guess I'm still out on that one.

Barriers to Entry

2011-08-08T17:25:00.005+02:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I certainly want to tweak the rules and classes from Lamentations of the Flame Princess to suit my humans-only Swords & Sorcery vision for a sandbox campaign.

The problem with doing this is that it presents a barrier to entry for new players, which may already be hesitant to join an old-school indie game with a new dungeon master.

So why do this? Why make a challenging situation even more difficult for myself? I've wrestled with this and turned it over again and again in my mind, and spent too many hours revising and revisiting my rule mods.

In the end, though, my desire to run a gritty Swords & Sorcery sandbox game that feels more like Nehwon than Forgotten Realms is overwhelming, and I will press forward.

The most significant aspects of D&D (whether old-school, new-school, or LotFP) that just don't fit with my vision include the Cleric class, the super-hero spells, Vancian magic, and demi-humans.

I took great inspiration from Akratic Wizardry House rules, the Mongoose publishing's Conan RPG, and also the Zenobia RPG (which you may never have heard of!)

Some of my decisions will seem trivial and minor (e.g. swapping demi-human classes), while others are dramatic and controversial (e.g. changing magic system). Oh well. If I document them well and present them well, hopefully it won't be too much of a barrier.

At a high-level, here are my changes:

Barbarian
Based on the Dwarf class with the following changes and additions:

Advance in the Climb skill instead of Architecture.
Base score in Bushcraft skill is 2 in 6 instead of 1 in 6.
When using the Press attack option, gain +4 to hit instead of +2.

Why advance the Climb skill instead of the Bushcraft skill? Aren't barbarians more like wilderness warriors? Yes and no. Conan is my model for the barbarian, and he was renowned for his incredible climbing skills. In addition, the Bushcraft skill is the domain of the Ranger.

I did throw the Barbarian a bone by giving him a slightly improved Bushcraft skill, though, and also some sort of a "ferocious attack" with an enhanced Press.

Ranger
Based on the Halfling class with the following changes and additions:

Bonus to Armor Class when not surprised only works when unencumbered or lightly encumbered.
Instead of weapon restrictions, a Ranger gains only 80% of XP rewards from treasure.

The ranger is clearly the wilderness hunter, more of a tracker and survivalist than the foe-hunting, dual-weapon-wielding monster-slayer. This is where the non-advancing attack bonus really helps define the character.
To guide the AC bonus when not surprised, I restrict the ability to lightly encumbered rangers only, but I still had to replace the Halfling's weapon restrictions. How? Rangers are transients, traveling fast and light and not overly bound by materialism.

Scholar
Based primarily on the Magic-user class with the following changes and additions:

Use the Cleric's hit point advancement, but Magic-user advancement for every other aspect, such as experience points, saving throws, and spellcasting restriction (unencumbered or lightly encumbered)
Scholarly Disciplines have a starting score of 0. Scholars begins with 4 points to spend and gain +1 point per level. It costs 2 points to learn a new discipline, which unlocks the secrets that allow the Scholar to learn and use powers and spells from that discipline.
Learning a new discipline confers knowledge of the basic power related to that discipline. In addition, the Scholar learns the defensive blast associated with his first discipline. The disciplines include: Alchemy, Counterspells, Divination, Hypnotism, Naturalism, Philosophy, Prestidigitation

Unless I'm running a truly medieval setting with a strong centralized neo-Catholic church organization, I just don't like the Cleric. Even more, I am not comfortable with having all clergy and priests being considered 1st-level spell-wielding Clerics. Perhaps this is why in the Original Edition D&D the Cleric didn't get spells until 2nd level?
I wanted to capture the Hyborian Age and Nehwon style cults and temples. Evil priests and cultists are often the bread and butter of Swords & Sorcery, and I don't see a place for the witch-hunting templar-style Cleric.
I shamelessly pulled the magic system from Conan RPG, but I didn't want to introduce fuzzy "magic points", so I'm using hit points for spell casting. Harsh, but juicy. I have excluded the Conan RPG disciplines of Curses, Necromancy and Summoning, which should only be available to antagonists. And I've added the domains of Alchemy (mostly spending XPs for creating potions and powders) and Philosophy which is lifted from the Zenobia RPG and includes powers such as Measurement, Celestial Beacon, Detect Lie, and Reveal Secrets.

Warrior-Monk
Based on the Elf class with the following changes and additions:

Cannot use spells when more than lightly encumbered (as a Scholar)
Warrior-monk Disciplines are similar to Scholarly Disciplines, except that the selections are fewer: Counterspells, Divination, Mysticism, Naturalism

The bridge from fighter/magic-user style Elf to a fighter/powers style Warrior-monk is easy and natural. The only significant problem I see is why would I allow Oriental Adventures into my game? Far-off lands are a wonderful exotic flare, and I'll reevaluate if too many players pick this class (which I doubt will happen).
The Warrior-monk has access to a smaller set of disciplines than the Scholar, but has one unique discipline - Mysticism - which is his real focus area.

Baby got Back... er... I'm back, baby!

2011-08-06T22:45:00.003+02:00

It's been nearly twelve months since my last post.

My family is now fairly settled here in Silicon Valley, and as summer draws on I am feeling the pull to start a gaming group. I've spent many long months digesting a wide variety of RPGs, especially old-school games.

Although my only experience with actual play of old-schools games includes Swords & Wizardry: White Box, I was running the Stonehell Dungeon, which is really tuned for play with Labyrinth Lord.

When I left Switzerland, I bequeathed my S&W:Whitebox and Stonehell dungeon books to my gamer group to keep them running (and they are still running!). So to get started, I ordered myself another copy of the Stoney Hell - I felt that there was still so much to explore!

To get closer to the author's system, I also ordered Laybrinth Lord, including the core rule book, the Advanced Edition Characters, and the Original Edition supplements. I devoured them.

I've churned through the original Points of Light sandbox settings from Rob Conley, purchased the Savage Swords of Athanor from Doug Easterly.

While all of these are absolutely fantastic games and supplements, I was really wanting something a little more sandpaper to it. Some grit.

And then I took a look at Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

While I have heard much about this game, to be honest, I was off-put by the name for a long time. In addition, the outfit being worn by the red-haired warrior on the cover threw me off, seeming a little too Renaissance for my taste. But the content is strong, combining familiarity with just enough juicy twists to feel really... right to me.

But one thing didn't jive... demi-humans. I just can't wrap my brains around them.

So I'm removing them, and replacing them with different types of human classes (Dwarf becomes Barbarian, Halfling becomes Ranger, Elf is gone). In addition, I don't like the Cleric/Magic-user split in a Swords & Sorcery setting, so I've followed some tips from Akratic Wizardry and combined them into a Scholar class (props to Mongoose Publishing's Conan, and a tip of the hat to Zenobia RPG), with a slightly pared down spell list, but a bump in "scholarly skills".

In coming posts I will provide downloadable PDFs that include the specs for these classes. For now, I'm off to pick up some new Game Science dice, hoping for an extra motivation kick to move my project forward.

Seasons of Change

2010-09-08T16:31:00.002+02:00

No, this is not a post about tracking weather patterns and seasonal transformations in RPGs.

Rather, it's about this season of change in my personal life.

I have just moved to Silicon Valley and will spend a few months getting settled into my new home, new job, and new community before I spread my wings and connect with like-minded gaming geeks.

Check back in a little while!

Gems

2010-08-16T15:44:00.003+02:00

In our last couple of sessions, the party found many gems. Initially, I simply told them something like, "You find five gems. Two are really big, well-polished and beautiful. Three are smaller, and one of them has some flaws."

Now I know what the actual values of these gems are. 500 gp, 400 gp, 100 gp, 100 gp, and 20 gp.

But how should I adjudicate this? I thought about have the players refer to each gem by a key, so that I could reference my secret value. They would take them to town and decide to sell "Gem A-1" and I might give them some sort of market value for the gem. But this is a lot of bookkeeping for very little benefit.

In the end, I decided that the listed gem value is not the appraised value, but rather what the party could sell it for. When they get back to town and sell the gems, I simply total it up. It's not very mysterious, but it's really just a number-crunching part of the "boring stuff".

How do you handle gems and jewels?

The Table

2010-08-10T07:01:00.006+02:00

Last night we played what is likely to be our second-to-last session before I move to the USA. I'm really glad that the group decided to start exploring Stonehell Dungeon a few weeks ago, because the dungeon is fun, creepy, easy to run, and expansive.

The sheer size of the mega-dungeon is very entertaining, because the players (most of whom are complete RPG n00bz) have come to realize that:
1) They can't "clear" the whole level.
2) The dungeon is not static. Things change when they retreat to town and then return.
3) There are many unexplained mysteries.

We've slipped back to playing a version of Swords & Wizardry: Whitebox that is pretty vanilla. We use a Thief class from Knockspell, and I've added a couple of minor house rules (healing elixirs and poultices, magic-users learning spells, binding wounds, etc.). It's been a fantastic environment for teaching new players the game, and for creating a very fast-paced night of gaming.

The group has already asked what they will do when I leave, and I'm sure that someone will purchase my Stonehell and WhiteBox and run with it. I can easily replace them in the USA, and I think that the chance to encourage continued playing here in Switzerland is too good to pass up.

Incidentally, I think that I will try Labyrinth Lord for my next gaming group, and I look forward to trying the upcoming Dwimmermount Dungeon from James Maliszewski (Grognardia).

I've always enjoyed pics of gaming groups in action, so I snapped a few of my own (on my iPhone).

Notice the numerous maps scattered across the table. I have handed out several treasure maps, scraps of journal entries, and scrawled notes from "other adventurers". The party has had several mappers - some using graph paper, some using blank paper, and some using small notepads. This has produced a very cool environment where the players gather around their collection of maps and notes, planning their next expedition (or their next path in the dungeon!).

Maps are a key part of gaming, and it warms my heart to see this.

The End of the Iron God

2010-07-19T10:04:00.002+02:00

I've posted several summaries of our game sessions on this blog. Some of them were written by yours truly, but others were written by the players. I don't think that I'll continue to post them on this blog, though, because it seems a little... boring.

I really enjoy reading the session summaries from Grognardia's Dwimmermount campaign, but I haven't been able to capture the same level of concise storytelling.

I managed to bring the Tomb of the Iron God to a close last week, so here are some highlights...

The first encounter with the goblins was disastrous, and the party was chased back to town, while two party members were captured. One was sacrificed to the foul tribal demons. The other was tortured, but ultimately rescued by another band of adventurers (not the PCs). He became a bitter drunkard who would heckle the PCs back at the tavern, and scare away potential hirelings.

Some initial forays into the Tomb were costly in the lives of hirelings and party members alike. Not enough rust-colored cloaks were found, so delving into the catacombs proved dangerous. Several hirelings went mad and ran off into the tunnels.

A nobleman in the local town hired the party to retrieve an heirloom ring from the golden sarcophagus deep in the catacombs. This side-plot would recur over the coming weeks, and was never completed.

The top level of the temple was cleared by another group of adventurers. I did this to put pressure on the PCs to get in there and get some loot quickly. The goblins were slain, and most of the treasures ransacked.

On another visit to the tomb, the PCs bumped into a Necromancer and his bodyguard who had come to "study" the catacombs. He charmed a PC hireling who was left behind to guard their mules, and discovered the power of the rust-colored cloaks. Upon the PCs return to town, the charmed hireling stole the cloaks and took them to his necromancer friend at the tomb.

The Necromancer was at the Tomb to set up a private laboratory and home. The rust-colored cloaks provided the only protection in the deep catacombs - a perfect defense against unwanted visitors. And now that he had collected them all, he "went deep". The party realized that they simply couldn't probe the depths of the dungeon without the protective cloaks, and that's how the Tomb of the Iron God ended.

Overall, I thought that it dragged on for too long, and I had to work hard to keep the dungeon setting "alive" instead of being static. It was good exercise, though, and I highly recommend this adventure.

iDungeon in the Valley

2010-07-05T19:09:00.003+02:00

When I say "valley", I mean the Silicon Valley.

I've got a new job with a certain iCompany, and my family will be moving there in late August.

There's got to be a vast pool of nerds, so I'm really excited to start a new group over the winter.

I'm also looking forward to being able to reach conventions and other mega-events with English-speaking hordes of nerdlings. Bring it on!

So...

Anybody out there?

Minis in Progress

2010-06-27T19:09:00.007+02:00

As requested in comments to a previous post, here are staged pictures of a step-by-step painting of four miniatures.

Please keep in mind that I paint miniatures for fun, not profit. I want them to be colourful and playable and memorable, not to win painting tournaments. I think that this is key to keep in mind when painting, otherwise you can drive yourself nutty.

start with base coat of white (spray)

apply the flesh tones, some iron and silver, and brown. even when there is white, you should repaint with a brilliant white

apply a black wash over metal, mud wash over brown and flesh, and then fill in the details, such as leather straps, gold ornaments, etc.

a bit of colour to make it stand out!

again, use a base coat of white. I put my Ral Partha minis on round bases for increased stability

do the metal, flesh, brown, and bright colours. The plate armor will be bronze (just to be different)

black wash over metal, mud wash over bronze and flesh and leather, purple wash over blue cloth. Add finishing touches and ornaments.

Excellent!

Don't forget to "base" your minis. That is, paint the round base and add flock, sand and/or static grass. This little bit of easy work adds a huge dimension to the characters. I can cover this next time.

Treasure Shares and Adventuring Companies

2010-06-25T09:02:00.001+02:00

I've been running an "episodic" Swords & Wizardry:WhiteBox game for nearly six weeks now. Although I've got a steady pool of eight players, only 4-5 show up on a regular basis. The nature of my game, which requires the party to return to "safety" (typically, Ming's Tavern & Hostel) at the end of each session allows us to avoid those sticky situations where the party makes camp in the wilderness or dungeon, and then a player cannot show up next week, while a different player mysteriously appears.

But this has led to a slightly different problem. What happens to collective treasures and rewards that are sought after each week? Shouldn't everyone in the larger adventuring group get a slice, even if they aren't there on the precise evening when we gather?

For example, the group has made four expeditions into the Tomb of the Iron God. They have discovered a pair of massive iron chests that are too heavy to move, and they have no way (yet) of opening them. But when they do, perhaps the booty should be shared amongst all of their broader gang, even if some of them are not on that particular expedition.

Another example is a side-quest for the heirloom signet ring of a noble family that is said to be hidden in a golden sarcophagus in the catacombs of the Iron God. Shouldn't the whole party share in the bounty?

(note that this particular player went red with frustration and anger when the thieves in the group started to pocket little gems and coins that they discovered)

Keep in mind that only two of these players have ever played RPGs before, so this is very raw, untainted attitudes and ideas.

This was sent from one of my players...

dear players,

in the past weeks our characters went through quite some adventure in the temple of the iron god and we are still seeking for the golden sarcophagus, Lord Hafgars ring and for a way to open two heavy iron chests. I wonder what would happen if one day we do find all that but someone of our group is missing, because he's on a trip. Or even worse: his character died by saving his friends' asses so that they could bring home the treasure safely. If it was me, to be honest, I'd really be pissed.

So I thought about a way to share the fruits more justly and here's what I suggest as a deviation from the standard rules:
- Treasure that we find on the go, e.g. things we find by searching rooms, are still dealt with as usual (I favour sharing but that's another story).
- On the other hand things that we know of from previous trips are shared among all players, even those absent, either evenly or proportional to the number of sessions they had spent on searching in the dungeon.

I know, this is a heresy and some might cry: "tim, stop that nonsense and kick him out of the group, we never needed such a rule, that's communism!" but then, in a normal setup you don't have changing sets of players, so you don't need such a rule. You might say: the fear that the others might get the treasure without you increases your motivation to show up. Speaking of myself that's not true: if I don't show up it's not due to a lack of treasure, it's just other obligations.

ciao werner

I bet that this will result in the creation of a formal "adventuring company" with membership, shares, etc. all laid out. It's interesting to watch this natural evolution.

What do you think?

Game Session 3: Side Quest

2010-06-15T19:02:00.003+02:00

With only three players, including a new guy (Xiker), I presented the group with a strong lead for treasure...

During a raucous party night at Ming's Tavern & Hostel, a fight breaks out and an old Aquinian adventurer named Ostorio is stabbed. Chaos erupts, and as he collapses on the table in front of Ropala (barbarian) and Brother Tom (cleric), he pushes a bloodied, crumpled map into the hands of Ander, a young magic-user who had just met the other characters, saying, "Beware the toll of the bloodstained idol!" before dying.

The band is low on funds, so they hire themselves as caravan guards headed north towards Belack, which is also located on the map. The night before they leave, the map is stolen from them by a pair of stealthy characters.

Finally arriving in Belack, Ander uses his magic to befriend the innkeeper and discovers that a group of strangers had just left from the inn that morning, headed into the hills to the east of the town, towards the Kezakian tribal lands. Their description matches that of the map-thieves.

The next day, the three intrepid adventurers track their quarry (who are on horses) into the rocky, rugged land near the mountains, but are ambushed by Kezakian tribesmen. Rushing ahead to escape the trap, the group comes up against a ruined wall that blocks the cliffside trail. The wall is held by the small group of thieves, who offer a truce with the party to fight off the savage tribesmen who are quickly approaching.

A bloody battle ensues, and most of the tribesmen are slain, and all of the thieves in the group, as well. In fact, Brother Tom managed to curry some divine favour and avoid mortal wounds more than once!

Ropala, Brother Tom and Ander approach the entrance to an ancient temple carved from the cliff face and examine the strange stone doorway that is riddled with handles, latches and rings. While Brother Tom is tending the wounds of the young sorcerer, the rash barbarian Ropala tries to pull a few of the latches. He cries out in terror as the door does not swing outwards, but rather crashes down upon him, crushing him instantly into a red paste.

The cleric and the sorcerer enter the mysterious temple and discover a giant-sized golden idol encrusted with red jewels. When a pair of tribesmen pursue them into the temple, the idol comes alive with some dark sorcerous power and attacks the group. Brother Tom is paralyzed with fear, but Ander drags him from the chamber, and the whole temple collapses around them in an explosion of rock and choking dust.

The bloodied and battered pair loot the bodies of the thieves and barbarians at the wall, take a few horses and return to Belack to ponder their next moves.

Can you tell which classic Swords & Sorcery tale this is a rip-off from?

Game Session 4: Whig's Tale

2010-06-11T21:17:00.003+02:00

They say a weeks a long time in the life of and a wizard, its probably true.

Having run low on coin, I decided to try earning a normal living crewing a river boat. After a weeks hard slog for paltry 7 gp I cameto my senses and decided its time to hit the adventuring trail again. Hareth seems the same as ever, so I decided to check out Ming's Tavern & hostel to see who's about, it's still the same dive it was a week ago, but at least the beers cheap and I now have some coin.

Thereare no familiar faces when I arrive at the tavern and only oneadventuring type a warrior Evelyn. Speaking with the Inn keeper my oldcompanions have left me a map and headed off in search of treasure. Hah, I doubt they'll survive without the arcane wonders of the Whig. So I have a map, maybe I'll follow in a day or two. There'e still unfinished business at the Temple of the Iron God.

Baron Hareth's brother, Lord Hafgar passes word that the temple has been looted by an adventuring party but his families heirloom ring is still unfound. So theres still money in the old temple for me. A bit of exploring without too much risk sounds just the ticket. I'll need some musclef or protection so I spend a bit on a few beers.

This should be easy, but then a wreck of a man starts making a fuss and cussing me, the wizards Whig. How does he know me? I look him over and realize it is Travis, now embittered and crippled man. Shit it costs my wages to quieten him down.

A young warrior called Evelyn joins my side and we find a couple of hirelings - Pon, young and inexperienced with a strongback and Enok, an experienced sword with an opinion about everything.

It rains all the way to the temple so we're glad to get inside. I suggest heading down into the catacombs and lead the way though the statue and the old preparation room to the stair way. It still shows signs of the jelly we fought some weeks earlier.

F*£@k me, Enok can read, he kicks up a fuss at the sign above the door. Probably should have put the cloak on before we set off. Note to self get more cloaks made in town.

With Enok being difficult and looking mean, we decide to search elsewhere for more cloaks. We go back to the entry room and try the door on the left. As we go through Enok feels the dreaded click of stones moving under foot. Nothing happened so we advance. As we round the corner Enok falls to his death in a vicious pit trap. Hah, should have listen to me and entered the catacombs.

We search on and find the evidence that the rooms have been looted. As we go deeper we find a goblin corpse and then, all of a sudden, a blood sucking Stirge swoopsupon Evelyn and latches on and starts to drink her dry. I recover my wits and give the little f*@$er a mighty whack with my big stick. Wow, I hit it good.

I tend to Evelyn and we move on to find a room with circular ruins surrounding a plug (?) shit I should have memorized read magic today. We find a room filled with bones and some small plinths. One seems higher than the others. I try twisting it one way - click, click click turn. Then try the other way - click, click clunka secret door opens revealing three chests laden with silver.

I swear Pon almost fainted when we opened the chests, I don't think he could imagine so much wealth, his quarter share will make him a rich man. Time to hot tail it back to Hareth with two full sacks and a heavy chest.

Leaving the temple we hear a padding of small feet and decide to spike the door shut.

Outside Hareth we stop to count the coin, shitwe are rich today, but how will we get this obvious wealth past thecity guard. We camp for the night and then Evelyn heads into town tobuy a mule, which carries the coin into town unmolested by the watch. Flush with coin I buy a quill and some scroll parchment and set down a few spells for future use.

Whig

On Episodes and Internationals

2010-05-31T08:07:00.005+02:00

We played our third game session last night (I'll post details tomorrow), and it was another entertaining event.

Internationals
Although only two regular players could come, one of them brought a friend, who is (like most of us) a new resident of Basel, and who has never played an RPG before. Fascinating!

So my larger gaming group includes: German, Swiss, French, English, and now Spanish (and me... a Canadian).

It still surprises me how international it is in Europe... I guess that I just never thought about it before I moved here. Vastly different languages, cultures, and world views are represented in a fairly small area, and it provides a rich and diverse place to live.

Sure, it makes my games a little more challenging to run - I often have to choose my vocabulary more carefully - but I think that it makes the multi-cultural gaming world seem more... present.

Episodes
Having only two of my six regular players show up would normally present a real serious problem. In my previous RPGing days, when I typically ran multi-session stories of epic proportions, a session may have ended "riding down the road, in pursuit of the captured princess", or "at the foot of the active volcano, just moments before the assault on a tribe of savages". If a player didn't show up the following week, we would have to a) have him "disappear" and not raise any eyebrows, b) have someone else play his character, or c) ???. Each of these options is no fun, and breaks the suspension of disbelief.

In my new incarnation as Dungeon Master, I determined to run an "episodic sandbox" style of game. I take my "episodic" inspiration from ... Star Trek.

I think that Star Trek is a good representation of episodic stories done well. Each week, a new situation occurs, and different characters may be featured while others fade into the day-to-day life of the ship.

Likewise, if my players can't make it, they are expected to furnish some sort of story for their character's actions - a sick relative, trouble with the law, hired out as a guard or ship-hand. If new players show up (or new characters, in the event of a PC death the following week!), it's easy to integrate them and bring them up to speed. I use the typical "tavern & hostel for travellers", and it works well - in my game, all adventurers are social misfits, vagabonds, escaped slaves, criminals, pariahs, etc.

And if the PCs ignore my thirty-minute warning and don't leave the dungeon/wilderness to make safe camp in town (or some similar base), there will be hell to pay. Specifically, they must roll on the Triple Secret Table of Terrible Dungeon Survival, as inspired by this post over at Jeff's Gameblog. After they failed to escape in the first session, and half of the group was maimed or slain by the table, the player's learned their lessons!

Game Session 2: The Hard Life of a Hireling

2010-05-30T11:17:00.003+02:00

This is a summary of session 2.

PCs who survived to make it back to Ming's Tavern & Hostel:
* Abraxis the elf
* Mjoc the cleric (although badly wounded)
* Bungle the mercenary hireling
* Whig the magic-user (although emotionally distraught and naked)
* Mjoc and Bungle take the week off to rest

A thief named Gregor joins the group, as does a cleric named Brother Tom

New hirelings are rounded up, including Drox the militia-man and Gig "the useless"

A ransom message arrives at the Tavern for the PCs, demanding that they return to the ruins if they wish to see Travis alive again. They are also approached by a page from the household of the Baron's brother, offering a
reward if the PCs will recover a family heirloom ring from within a golden sarcophagus in the catacombs beneath the ruined monastery.

The PCs head out in the driving rain to assault the ruins and manage to slip in without being noticed. After dispatching a grey ooze using fire & oil, the group descended into the lower catacombs. A large, round, compass led
the group to discover a secret door, and a pair of massive, solid-iron chests with no easy lids.

They continued to explore but came up against a gang of animated skeletons and flesh-eating ghouls. The ghouls slew Drox, and a skeleton skewered Abraxis before the party could flee.

In true old school fashion, the body is looted. And since they are already in the Tombs of the Dead, they simply strip him down and find a vacant burial alcove for him!

Upon returning to town, the party was joined by a young barbarian named Ropala who was just new to town. They replenished their supplies, hired two more henchmen (Chalk the street thug and Wooglet the failed wizard's apprentice) before returning to the ruins.

This time, they met the goblins and had parlay. The goblins ask the PCs to clear the lower catacombs of the walking dead, in return for the life of their friend Travis.

The party headed into the catacombs, but quickly retreated back upstairs, only to be ambushed by the nervous goblins. The PCs slew many of their attackers, and the rest of them fled in panic before the party as they ran for the surface.

Skeletons! (and a few heroes)

2010-05-15T21:58:00.005+02:00

In my continuing (never ending?) quest to bring painted minis to the gaming table, I spent three hours on Thursday just painting some of my new Otherworld Miniatures skeletons, and several of my old-school Ral Partha heroes (beware the Ral Partha website design is stuck in 1996 design).

The skeletons were easy... I base-coated everything with white and then applied a "sepia" wash over them. Tada!

The "heroes" also came out pretty well. I love wizards with pointy hats and flowing, mysterioso robes.

Anyways, it was a lot of fun. Over the past two or three years, I have only painted Orcs & Goblins for my Warhammer tabletop army, and it's fun, but not as satisfying as kicking out a heroic character in 45 minutes.

Now ... how to use them? Just for representing marching order? What a waste! But I don't want to turn to the battlemat for every combat... I must consult the oracle and strike a balance.

Next game session is Sunday evening, and most of the group are coming back (one has chosen to watch FC Basel fight for the league championship instead).

Goblins!

2010-05-13T08:29:00.004+02:00

A few months ago, when I was just beginning my journey into the old-school renaissance, I discovered Otherworld Miniatures. In fact, I read about it online at the same time that a fellow gamer mentioned it.

While their catalog isn't extensive, they have all of the required monster groups, and you can buy them in squad-sized blister packs.

I quickly ordered some staples - goblins, kobolds, skeletons, and a large gang of pig-faced orcs - but I just began painting last night.

Behold! My goblins. (and a ranger, painted by my little wife)

Game Session 1: Party of Five

2010-05-11T21:48:00.004+02:00

Finally, with a vast sigh of relief, the first game session is done. I've been waiting (im)patiently for weeks to arrange all of the pieces, and ensure the schedules lined up just right...

On Sunday night, an odd mix of friends, co-workers and acquaintances showed up at my home with their funny dice and fizzy beverages to pretend that they are vagabonds and outcasts with nothing to lose.

Being an ex-pat Canadian living in Switzerland, and working for a small international company, the group is decidedly mixed - one Englishman, one Frenchman, one German and two true-blooded Swiss. There were a few language hiccups, and I had to choose my descriptions carefully, but it was fun!

After all of my debate about a human-only, house-ruled system blah blah blah... I settled on pretty much vanilla Swords & Sorcery: WhiteBox rules. The minor house rules include a revised spell list, the Fighter Options, and I added the Thief "Treasure Seeker" as presented in Knockspell #2.

Only one player was experienced with D&D, while two others had some minor exposure to other RPGs. Wow... for real?

Thankfully, there are no voluminous tomes of rule books, pages of skills and feats, or complicated battle-mat movement rules to explain. Heck... it's not even character creation, it's called character generation because you very little say in it!

The players rolled their 3d6 per ability score, and recorded the result. They looked at the numbers and said, "Hey, this looks like a fighter (or elf, or cleric)" and went with it.

Interestingly, the party consisted of:
Abraxis the Elf
Mjoc the Cleric (pronouced "myawk")
Whig the Magic-user
Travis the Fighter
Picky the Thief
and Bungle the mercenary hireling

Equipment was purchased. Then I showed them a map of the sandbox as they know it... it's mostly unexplored, but there is a coastline, a big river, two large towns, and a few villages. I explained that they are a rag-tag group of outcasts (escaped slave? criminal? homeless and indebted? orphan? alcoholic? cultist?) who survive on the fringes of society, and who are willing to delve into dangerous dungeons in search of treasure or a quick death.

I gave them three leads to explore:
1) Hire themselves to a hunting party heading upriver into the mysterious warm jungles in search of ivory (or plunder from ancient ruins)
2) Head north to the Keep on the Borderlands
3) Explore the recently-ruined Monastery of the Iron God, rumoured to have unclaimed wealth in the catacombs

They headed east to the ruins, and much adventure ensued! Combat without battlemats is refreshing and FAST AS HELL!

One note is that I removed healing spells from the spell list (cleric's don't get spells at first level anyways, though), but I allow PCs to "bind wounds" after a battle for +1d4 hit points (clerics restore 1d4+1). But combat is still very, very lethal for 1st-level characters. There were some close calls.

Overall, the feedback has been very positive about the "old school" feel (from the veteran players). The dungeon crawl, the traps and tricks, and the bargaining with a goblin tribe for safe passage.

At the end of the night, the party was stuck in the dungeon, so I forced them to roll for Escape using the rules presented over at Jeff's Gameblog. Most of them did not escape unharmed... one was captured, one was captured and killed, one was maimed, one wandered home naked and delirious.

With the Escape! rules, players can show up each Sunday and start a new episodic adventure. None of this epic storytelling crap. Get in there and get the loot!

Good times.

The Sandbox Riseth

2010-04-13T23:07:00.003+02:00

I have scheduled my first gaming session for this Sunday evening, and I must admit... I'm scared.

It's been a few years since I did any real Mastering of Dungeons, and I've only played Pathfinder in recent memory. Despite my WhiteBox and Ral Partha minis not arriving yet, I'm going move forward. The invitations are set, and the frozen pizzas are purchased (pizza delivery in Switzerland costs as much as beaver-fur long-johns in Canada!)

As the date approaches, my plans for the B2 conversion have coalesced. I'll not share them here until they've been played through by the posse. Speaking of the posse, this should be interesting... my group will consist mostly of n00bz. Most of them have played a couple of online RPGs, or even rolled up characters in other systems, but no real D&D veterans. I don't know if this is good or bad, because the old-school throwback rules might make their heads spin!

In addition to the lack of experience (I've already warned them of potential body counts while they learn the hard lessons of dungeoneering), I don't think that any of them are native English speakers. There is a Frenchmen, two Germans, and a Swiss so far, with more who have yet to reply. I'm going to tap my Warhammer gaming group too.

The idea is to have as many people as possible, so that on any given session, a posse of 5-7 PCs are around the table. The "pick up & go" method really appeals to me, and I will strive to avoid long "story" games that require consistent player attendance. The West Marches style of campaign (see Ars Ludi's blog) really interests me, and I think that it's totally in line with my ideas for player attraction, retention, and engagement.

As for the setting, I've decided to go with my own sandbox realm. Inspired by James Maliszewski over at Grognardia, and his Dwimmermount campaign, I'm going to create a small region (sandbox) for the party to explore. While his is propped by a megadungeon, mine will feature a collection of smaller dungeons, towns, and wilderness encounters, with two major cities.

The house rules will be minimal, other than my class changes, and should grow organically with the game.

I will surely post some campaign reports as we proceed, and I will also post my B2 conversion (and others!)

Diary of a Conversion

2010-03-31T18:59:00.006+02:00

I'm very much in love with the tales and maps of many "classic" Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules.

I'm also very much in love with the idea of converting them to be used in a pulp-fantasy, swords & sorcery style of setting.

This presents a few challenges:
1) No demi-humans or humanoids
This means that all traces of elves, dwarves and hobbitlings, and all tribes of orcs, goblins, and kobolds, must be removed or replaced with more s&s -style of creatures.

2) Dungeon ecology and packed dungeons
Many old-school dungeons were jam packed full of monsters with no reason to be there. I like to follow the rule of thumb that no more than 30% of rooms should be inhabited at most. The rest of a dungeon should be populated with stuff to explore, tricks and traps to overcome, and other types of challenges.

So I've been wrestling with B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. This is the proto-typical adventure module, including a 'home-base' (the Keep), a few wilderness encounters, and a series of caverns packed with diverse humanoid tribes. I badly want to run this in a s&s setting, but it just doesn't fit as-is.

In seeking inspiration for module conversions, I stumbled upon Xoth's "Adventures of the Hyborian Age" site, which includes conversions of three classic modules. Ding!

S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojancth becomes The Lost Caverns of Acheron
D2: Shrine of the Kuo-Toa becomes Shrine of the Black Ones
D3: Vault of the Drow becomes City of the Spider-God

I have gone in-depth into the conversion of S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth because a) I have the module, and b) it's for the lowest-levels (9th-10th!).

Here's some highlights of the conversion (the hard bits!)
The Overland Map and Encounters
The overland map has the key locations changed around a bit, and more static areas laid out.
Random Encounters (notable differences)
- Gnoll Raiding Band >> Aesir Raiders (fierce Norsemen)
- Goblin Band >> Band of Kezankians (small mountain men)
- Hill Giants >> Man-apes (brutally strong, large, beasts)

Encounter Areas
- Frozen mummy
- Den of were-wolves
- "Raven's Feast" (recent battlefield)
- Mammoth vale (cursed cave full of ivory tusks)
- Slaver's camp
- Chasm & rope bridge
- village
- "Skull Gate of Hyperborea" (cool monoliths)

I like the flavour of the wilderness encounters. Much better than a random encounter list featuring the standard Monster Manual stuff.

Lesser Caverns
21 rooms, 21 monster encounters, including stirges, clay golems, mobats, lurkers, pech, giant cave crickets, green slime blobs, trolls, bats, cave morays, fomorian giants, piercers, cockatrices, gorgimera, dao, and xorns! Phew!

The monster population ratio is scaled back to nearly 50%, and there are consistent themes - 'voormis' (savage men), bat swarms, fungus, and cave worms. The tricks and traps on this level are good, especially when trying to navigate the underground river.

Greater Caverns
20 rooms, 18 monster encounters, including troglodytes, behir, bodak, marlgoyle, huge lizard, umber hulk, gas spores, bar-igura, demons, trappers, ropers, shambling mounds, rhino beetles, hill giants, shriekers, dracolisk, and finally a vampire!

Again, the encounter ratio is cut down to almost nothing - some 'brain leechers', a couple of animated giant skeletons, and the final battle with the vampire queen. Many more traps on this level.

In summary, I've learned a lot from Xoth's conversion. His three-pronged approach - reduce monster count, swap remaining monsters/humanoids with beasts, and add tricks and traps appropriate to the genre - works really well.

Now to try my hand with B2: The Keep on the Borderlands

Complex Spell Complexity

2010-03-26T21:16:00.003+01:00

I really like the idea of spell complexity rules.

Essentially, it means that magic-users don't get to simply cast their spell without chance for failure. I mean, fighters have to roll to hit their enemies, and thieves have to roll to sneak around, so why not make magic-users jump through some hoops? It makes magic less predictable and scientific. You can also add the chance to have a spell be 'remembered'. I dig that!

Although one approach to Spell Complexity was presented in Knockspell Magazine #2 (and I think it was based on Chainmail, or something like that), it is scaled for Swords & Wizardry Core Rules, which go up to 20th level, and it has more complexity than I like - two rolls! Come on, people! We can do better!

Hitchhiker: You heard of this thing, the 8-Minute Abs?
Ted: Yeah, sure, 8-Minute Abs. Yeah, the excercise video.
Hitchhiker: Yeah, this is going to blow that right out of the water. Listen to this: 7... Minute... Abs.
Ted: Right. Yes. OK, all right. I see where you're going.
Hitchhiker: Think about it. You walk into a video store, you see 8-Minute Abs sittin' there, there's 7-Minute Abs right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man?
Ted: I would go for the 7.

So I've got a one-roll system.

Spell Complexity
When a spell is cast, there is a chance that it may fail, it may be delayed by one round, it may be cast normally, or it may be cast and remembered for re-casting.
Roll 1d12 and consult this table:
- if roll = 1, the spell fails and is exhausted from the sorcerer
- if roll <= spell level, the spell will be cast the following round and exhausted from the sorcerer
- if roll > spell level, the spell is cast immediately and exhausted from the sorcerer
- if roll = 12, the spell is cast immediately and retained by the sorcerer

Magic is hard!

"I'll Take 'Elf' for $1000, please Alex"

2010-03-21T16:00:00.007+01:00

No... not this.

Every once in a while I stumble across a picture that spurs my imagination and puts my rusty brain gears into overdrive.

This is one such image, by a Japanese artist named Hideyoshi.

I've known for some time that I wanted to re-imagine the Elf class as some sort of mystic warrior. This image has crystallized my decision.

Ronin (based on the Elf (variant) class)
note: could also be called a Warrior-monk
Ronin could be martial-arts masters from distant mountain temples, assassins from the decadent city-states of the south, or members of a katana-wielding warrior caste.
* Weapon and Armour Restrictions: may not use two-handed weapons, and are limited to chain armour.
* Unarmed attacks: deal 1d6-1 damage instead of 1d3.
* Stealth: bonus to surprise checks when being sneaky (surprise on 1-3 on 1d6)
* Hereditary Foes: +1 to hit or damage against black sorcerers, intelligent undead, and were-beasts. Ronin are also immune to paralysis caused by undead such as ghouls.
* Spells:The spell list for a Ronin is a special sub-set of the larger spell list available to Sorcerers, but the Ronin does not have to 'learn' new spells – he may prepare any spell from the list.

I'm pretty happy with this, and I look forward to seeing it used in the game. I've now met my initial guidelines of using only the core classes that were available in OD&D (based on the Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox Edition).

I have added some minor variant options for the Fighting-man.

I have removed the Cleric, but expanded the Magic-user into a Sorcerer.

I have tweaked the "race-as-class" options to represent possible human classes: Dwarf becomes Barbarian, Halfling becomes Savage, and Elf becomes Ronin.

Done.and.done.

The Sinister Sorcerer

2010-03-16T19:13:00.004+01:00

In my previous posts, I detailed my class/race modifications to use the Halfling as a Savage, and the Dwarf as a Barbarian.

I also wrote up some notes on Fighters with Grit to give some expanded options to the class.

Now it comes to the Magic-user, and, in a roundabout sort of way, the Cleric.

Keep in mind that I'm basing my game plans on the Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox Edition rules, a throwback to the days of yore... Dungeons & Dragons 0-edition.

I also intend to run a game setting that is 'swords & sorcery pulp fantasy' as opposed to the more common 'tolkien-esque high fantasy'.

Think of R.E. Howard's Conan instead of Weis & Hickman's Dragonlance.

Think of this:

Instead of this:

The classic Cleric class (yessssss!) doesn't quite fit in this setting. A spiritual warrior, defender of the faith, templar-style priest... just doesn't work. So I've removed it.

Instead, the main spellcaster class is now called a Sorcerer. Rules-wise, he's purely a Magic-user. The only thing that is different is the spell list, which has been changed a little bit to reflect my desired setting. Most of the Cleric spells are now in the list (with the exception of high-level healing and resurrection), and most of the spells have been renamed.

My vision is for the Sorcerer to be used as a necromancer, a diviner, a mystic, a priest, a shaman, a witch.

Why settle for boring old 'Death Spell' when you can cast 'Agonizing Doom'? Why 'Bless' your ally when you can make an 'Astrological Prediction'? Don't settle for any 'Phantasmal Force' when the terror of a 'Dread Serpent' can be unleashed!

Surely some of the spells that I have left in the list would cause hard-core Swords & Sorcery fans to balk. Spells such as Explosive Powder (Fireball) - even though it's reduced in effect - are a bit too flashy for some. But my mantra thus far has been to avoid changing the basic rules too much. Minor tweaks.

You can view my complete spell list here in pdf form.

Another change to the Magic-user is the corrupting influence of sorcery. I could have gone far with this, like the Conan RPG from Mongoose did... in that system, the Sorcerer might learn spells through a Demonic Pact, or from a Coven or Temple. I wanted to keep it simple.

Whenever a Sorcerer learns a new spell, he must make a saving throw (modified by the spell level) to avoid a corruption. This is also for first-level Sorcerers who can fill their spellbook with three 1st-level spells and one 2nd-level spell. For example, when a Sorcerer learns a 2nd-level spell, he must make a saving throw at -2 to avoid a corruption.

What is a sorcerous corruption? Well... anything weird, or nasty. I've come up with a small list to start with. (Note: the first twelve items are shamelessly borrowed from Thulsa's "Black Wizard" NPC class)
Sorcerous Corruptions:
1. Wizard loses sight in one eye.
2. Wizard loses all of his hair.
3. Wizard loses sense of smell and taste.
4. Wizard loses 2 points of Cha.
5. Wizard's touch spoils wine.
6. Wizard's face and body become misshapen and hideous.
7. Wizard must make saving throw or become hopelessly enraged at the sound of laughter.
8. Wizard develops limp, reducing movement rate to half normal.
9. Wizard develops an irrational and complete fear of an animal species (dogs, horses, cats, etc)
10. Wizard loses 2 points of Str.
11. Wizard loses 2 points of Con.
12. Wizard develops allergy to all food not treated with a rare herb.
13. Wizard emits terrible pungent odours when he speaks, sweats, or breathes heavily.
14. Wizard becomes susceptible to severe sunburns whenever his skin is briefly exposed to sunlight.
15. Wizard's fingernails and hair grow incredibly fast, and must be trimmed at least once per day
16. Wizard's voice becomes raspy and weak, barely above a wheezing, hoarse whisper
17. Wizard develops an irrational and complete phobia of a particular colour
18. Wizard's teeth and fingernails fall out
19. Wizard's eyes become large and bulbous, and are always seeping and bloodshot
20. Wizard's skin is unnaturally cold and clammy, with a thin film

Obviously, some of them have a significant mechanics impact, and others are role-playing oriented. Such is the danger of sorcery!

When you play a sorcerer, beware of the source of your powers...

Fighters with Grit

2010-03-12T00:35:00.005+01:00

The typical Fighter has one special ability - 'Combat Machine' - which allows him to make extra attacks on enemies of < 1 Hit Dice.

No problemo. I like it. It's like the "cleave" feat of 3.x/4.x edition, and I like the image it conveys, especially in a pulpy swords & sorcery setting.

But there are other fighter-types too. In most games, these are spun off as Fighter sub-classes, or into full-grown classes of their own. You know them by name, and stereotype: the ranger, the rogue, the noble, the pirate, the monk, the mercenary. I would include 'the barbarian' in this list, but I've already got a "class" for that (basically, just a new coat of paint on the Dwarf!).

These quasi-classes were laid out very nicely in the Conan RPG by Mongoose publishing, and I like their flavours. So I decided to run with it. I looked at each of the classes, and tried to identify the one single most defining ability of each of them. This special ability would replace the 'Combat Machine' special ability of the vanilla Fighter, allowing me to side-step any talk of extra classes, or even of sub-classes. It's a simple matter of swapping a special ability.

So instead of having the 'Combat Machine' ability, a Fighter character may choose one of the following special abilities:
* Tracking (Borderer): skilled tracker and hunter
* Stealth (Thief): bonus to surprise checks when being sneaky (alone)
* Leadership (Noble): bonus to henchmen loyalty
* Reflexes (Pirate): bonus to avoid surprise
* Ranks (Soldier): bonus to-hit when fighting alongside other soldiers
* Fisticuffs (Monk): bonus damage with unarmed strikes

Keep it simple.

The Pirate

The Soldier

The Fighter

The Thief

The Noble

In The Beginning...

2010-03-09T22:13:00.008+01:00

Ah... my first post. Let's make it a good one.

I'll just cut to the chase - I've been uncomfortable with WotC changes to Dungeons & Dragons since 3rd edition, but I couldn't put it into words, let alone fight the tide. I've spent the past year or two mulling over ideas I've had in my brain, and chewing on tidbits I have found online.

Enter the "old school" renaissance, and now I feel like I am home.

Except that I'm not at home. I moved my young family from Victoria, BC, Canada to Basel, Switzerland in the autumn of 2009. So now I have to build a gaming group from scratch. Why not start it out right? Start it out old school!

My very own copy of Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox is ordered and should be here soon.

My pig-faced orcs have arrived and are awaiting glue and paint. Sadly, they will not make an appearance in my swords & sorcery game.

My vintage-style Ral Partha heroes are en route.

The group is forming, as I've been making many friends in various areas - local game store, Warhammer club, and at work. Gotta be bold.

But what am I going to play? Obviously, I've settled on Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox rules, but I want a setting that feels like the dirty and dangerous streets of Lankhmar, like the jewelled kingdoms of the Hyborian Age.

While I have found many, many great resources, discussions and ideas for inspiration, I want to make it my own.

So here's my first set of house rules, inspired by these two points:
1) No demi-humans
2) Stick to the core classes

This thread post really got me moving with some ideas on using race as class, without inventing new classes.

Barbarian (based on the Dwarf class)

Barbarians include coastal raiders from the northern fjords, feathered warriors from the steaming jungle pyramids, nomadic riders from the deserts and arid steppes.
* Hereditary Foes: +2 bonus to-hit and damage against sorcerers
* Keen Detection: Good at tracking and spotting traps
* Hunter: Defensive bonus against beasts +2 and giant beasts +4
* Saving Throws: +4 bonus on saving throws vs. death, and +1 on saving throws vs. poison and traps
* Superstitious: -2 penalty on saving throws vs. unspeakable horrors, illusions, and mind-affecting magic

Savage (based on the Halfling class - don't laugh)

Savages include wild pygmies from the deepest swamps and jungles, and primitive descendants of fallen empires on forgotten islands.
* Deadly Accuracy: +2 bonus to-hit with missile weapons
* Near Invisibility: When in the wilderness, a Savage is hard to spot, and can move with almost total silence
* Hunter: Defensive bonus against beasts +2 and giant beasts +4
* Saving Throws: +4 bonus on saving throws vs. death, and +1 on saving throws vs. poison and traps
* Superstitious: -2 penalty on saving throws vs. unspeakable horrors, illusions, and mind-affecting magic

These are mostly adhering to the source classes. I also intend to keep the level limits - 6th level for Barbarians, and 4th level for Savages. I don't want to rock the rule boat too much.

Stay tuned for my adjustments to the Fighter.