Thanks in advance.
TB
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Humanity's Reign (First Map of Ukarea)
As I mentioned in my earlier post today, I had developed a Hexographer map of Ukarea during Humanity's Reign which I am not too fond of. I managed to pull it onto the web, and share it now in hopes of getting some constructive feedback, before I rerender it. What should I change? Where did I go wrong? Could it be salvaged? As I mentioned earlier, the only hope that I currently have is that thought the lands are claimed they may not necessarily be maintained.
Thanks in advance.
TB
Thanks in advance.
TB
The Changing Times of Ukarea
As I have mentioned on other posts, Ukeara (TM) is going to be a multi-time-line setting, taking place in the early years known as Humanity's Reign (TM) and a later period after humanity's fall, known as Humanity's Ruin (TM). Combined the setting will be referred to The Time of Humanity's Reign or Ruin (TM) or possibly just Reign and Ruin (TM).
The setting started out rough, to be honest. I thought I would start with a basic map, develope humanity and then wipe it off the face of the planet. Changing the map as I went. After finding a great free (which I hope to one day purchase so I can do custom hexes) online java based map program; Hexographer, I set about trying my idea out with the program, and came out with this:
This seemed to work just fine, but I was not happy with the size or layout, so I went back and started anew. I have a base map, that I am now finally happy with. The latest version of unsettled Ukarea (TM):
I started assigning parts of the world for dominions (which I do not currently have a picture for), but am unsatified with it. I have taken some time off from the project recently, as I was getting burned out, and now when I look at the map for Habit for Humanity, I see issues. For one, I filled the entire map with claimed lands, nothing is not claimed. If there were Badlands, I probably would have settled them too. Granted that humans wouldn't be in every hex that they claim, but it does conflict with reality. Yes, I like alittle reality in my fantasy.
So, back to the drawing board! I am thinking of breaking the time of Humanity's Reign (TM) down into several time-lapsed maps. This should help me keep a realistic human expansion and history easier, rather than looking at a settled map and trying to answer, "Why are they settled this way?"
More to come as time permits,
TB
The setting started out rough, to be honest. I thought I would start with a basic map, develope humanity and then wipe it off the face of the planet. Changing the map as I went. After finding a great free (which I hope to one day purchase so I can do custom hexes) online java based map program; Hexographer, I set about trying my idea out with the program, and came out with this:
This seemed to work just fine, but I was not happy with the size or layout, so I went back and started anew. I have a base map, that I am now finally happy with. The latest version of unsettled Ukarea (TM):
I started assigning parts of the world for dominions (which I do not currently have a picture for), but am unsatified with it. I have taken some time off from the project recently, as I was getting burned out, and now when I look at the map for Habit for Humanity, I see issues. For one, I filled the entire map with claimed lands, nothing is not claimed. If there were Badlands, I probably would have settled them too. Granted that humans wouldn't be in every hex that they claim, but it does conflict with reality. Yes, I like alittle reality in my fantasy.
So, back to the drawing board! I am thinking of breaking the time of Humanity's Reign (TM) down into several time-lapsed maps. This should help me keep a realistic human expansion and history easier, rather than looking at a settled map and trying to answer, "Why are they settled this way?"
More to come as time permits,
TB
Friday, May 7, 2010
Thoughts on Hit Dice, Hit Points, and Doing Damage.
I was rummaging through some of John's older blog posts over at The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms and stumble upon 'an oldie but a goody', entitled Quick & Dirty Monster Hit Points
It got me to thinking about using a number of dice equal to the monster's HD, as HPs and rolling them out when the Players come into contact with a monster, leave them on the table, and remove them as the Characters do damage. For an example, the party encounters a 4HD monster and decide they must defeat it to continue on. I roll out four dice; 6, 5, 3, 1. Sure, I could use some scrap paper and right down 15 and cross it off as they do damage, or use tick-marks as John suggests. But, meh, I hate writing stuff down during a fight and now I could just pick them up as damage exceeds one of them.
But then another issue came to mind...
This is all well and good for a small encounter with one or two monsters, but what about an encounter with a mob of monsters? I didn't want to have to have a mason jar of d6s (all monster's HD in S&W:WB are d6s BTW) and I didn't want several piles of dice around the table representing different monsters. Not to mention, how to remember what pile was for which monster, especially after some have taken damage?
The thought of how HP are often referred to as being abstract, not actual physical damage, and changed periodically (don't have a link to that discussion / mind set at the moment) snuck into the equation somewhere along the line. Someone, somewhere (and I forget where) said they had their Characters re-roll every morning in game to simulate things such as a bad night's rest, having a bad day, etc. That coupled with how S&W:WB Characters re-roll their HPs at every level advancement, which I like, made me have an epiphany. The next logical step, for me at least, was to think, 'What if monster's HPs, but not HDs, change from round-to-round?' Interest...
So every round I could roll out a new set of HD, before or after the Player determines if they hit or not, and if they hit and roll a damage value over one of the monster's HD, that die is removed. But, the original problem rears its nasty head, how to keep track of individual monsters and how many HD they each have left accordingly? My answer, more dice. This is what I envision, in a nutshell...
The party encounters four 3HD monsters in their travels and engage. On the table in front of me I place four d6s turned to 3s to represent the monsters and their 3HD each. Now, as an aside, I have had a back and forth love hate relationship with the idea of whether Players should know how many HD and HPs monsters have, but what follows might just swing it for me. I am starting to think of the dice laid out on the table as physical representations of the monsters, if you will, FWIW. The Fighting-man describes closing on the monster to the left and attacking, scoring a hit, he rolls damage, a 4+1 for 5. All the monsters are at full strength so I grab three dice and roll; 6, 5, 4. The Player equaled or beat one of my die (the 5 or 4) so rakes his blade across the monster's shoulder. I pick up the three die I rolled and flip one of the d6 'miniatures' (the one on the left he mentioned) to a 2 so I can remember to only roll two Hitdice for that monster next round if it gets hit. And sure enough, it does. The Player rolls a 3+1 for 4 and I grab two d6s, rolling; 4 and 5. Another successful attack by the Fighting-man so I flip the 'Die Miniature' from a 2 to a 1. Now that we are down to a 1:1 roll with the next successful attack by the Player, things seem to become more... erm, dicey. With, typically, one die of damage being rolled by the Player and a single die rolled by me for HPs round-to-round, I might just beat him for a few rounds, whittling him down. This, I think, would make for a nice abstract representation of a desperate monster. It realizes that it is on it's last leg and goes all out. Could this make S&W:WB more precarious for the already lethal rules set? Maybe, but it might just be something I want to playtest.
I just thought I would share something that is probably poppy-cock, is not play tested, and might not fit into the 'Old School' mindset. But, there it is, none-the-less.
Thoughts?
TB
It got me to thinking about using a number of dice equal to the monster's HD, as HPs and rolling them out when the Players come into contact with a monster, leave them on the table, and remove them as the Characters do damage. For an example, the party encounters a 4HD monster and decide they must defeat it to continue on. I roll out four dice; 6, 5, 3, 1. Sure, I could use some scrap paper and right down 15 and cross it off as they do damage, or use tick-marks as John suggests. But, meh, I hate writing stuff down during a fight and now I could just pick them up as damage exceeds one of them.
But then another issue came to mind...
This is all well and good for a small encounter with one or two monsters, but what about an encounter with a mob of monsters? I didn't want to have to have a mason jar of d6s (all monster's HD in S&W:WB are d6s BTW) and I didn't want several piles of dice around the table representing different monsters. Not to mention, how to remember what pile was for which monster, especially after some have taken damage?
The thought of how HP are often referred to as being abstract, not actual physical damage, and changed periodically (don't have a link to that discussion / mind set at the moment) snuck into the equation somewhere along the line. Someone, somewhere (and I forget where) said they had their Characters re-roll every morning in game to simulate things such as a bad night's rest, having a bad day, etc. That coupled with how S&W:WB Characters re-roll their HPs at every level advancement, which I like, made me have an epiphany. The next logical step, for me at least, was to think, 'What if monster's HPs, but not HDs, change from round-to-round?' Interest...
So every round I could roll out a new set of HD, before or after the Player determines if they hit or not, and if they hit and roll a damage value over one of the monster's HD, that die is removed. But, the original problem rears its nasty head, how to keep track of individual monsters and how many HD they each have left accordingly? My answer, more dice. This is what I envision, in a nutshell...
The party encounters four 3HD monsters in their travels and engage. On the table in front of me I place four d6s turned to 3s to represent the monsters and their 3HD each. Now, as an aside, I have had a back and forth love hate relationship with the idea of whether Players should know how many HD and HPs monsters have, but what follows might just swing it for me. I am starting to think of the dice laid out on the table as physical representations of the monsters, if you will, FWIW. The Fighting-man describes closing on the monster to the left and attacking, scoring a hit, he rolls damage, a 4+1 for 5. All the monsters are at full strength so I grab three dice and roll; 6, 5, 4. The Player equaled or beat one of my die (the 5 or 4) so rakes his blade across the monster's shoulder. I pick up the three die I rolled and flip one of the d6 'miniatures' (the one on the left he mentioned) to a 2 so I can remember to only roll two Hitdice for that monster next round if it gets hit. And sure enough, it does. The Player rolls a 3+1 for 4 and I grab two d6s, rolling; 4 and 5. Another successful attack by the Fighting-man so I flip the 'Die Miniature' from a 2 to a 1. Now that we are down to a 1:1 roll with the next successful attack by the Player, things seem to become more... erm, dicey. With, typically, one die of damage being rolled by the Player and a single die rolled by me for HPs round-to-round, I might just beat him for a few rounds, whittling him down. This, I think, would make for a nice abstract representation of a desperate monster. It realizes that it is on it's last leg and goes all out. Could this make S&W:WB more precarious for the already lethal rules set? Maybe, but it might just be something I want to playtest.
I just thought I would share something that is probably poppy-cock, is not play tested, and might not fit into the 'Old School' mindset. But, there it is, none-the-less.
Thoughts?
TB
Monday, May 3, 2010
The Adventure Begins, in Earnest.
So the PbP game that I mentioned has advanced through the preface and has started off on the first leg of the adventure.
Preface: All characters, for whatever reason they chose, found themselves in the small farming village of Handover. Handover supports a population of approximately three hundred inhabitants, or roughly sixty family. The man governing the village is the Mayor, the people governing the Mayor are the Merchant's Guild, a small group of business men and women of town. There is also no less than two churches, each with their whispers in the Mayor's ear.
The characters, for the most part, arrived on the day of the Spring Fest. One of two days that the village assembled, sold their wares, and celebrated their harvest. Talyanna the Holy Woman and Balan the Guardian chose to be from Handover and have just recently returned to their home after Talyanna was sent away abroad to learn her clerical duties. Balan had followed her and hired on, while Talyanna studied, as a guard. Morzin the Hunter has wondered into town, ever vigilant for undead, as he hunts them with conviction and single mindedness (literally). Dagon the Mercenary found himself in town low on funds and took up work as a guard for the Mayor. Garen the Wanderer found his way into Handover when he was sent ahead of the Spring Caravan to announce their pending arrival, as he had hired on as a caravan guard.
Things of note thus far: excellent role play. Creative and well written dialogs and descriptions have given me tons to work with. For example I mentioned a young girl in one of the first of my posts and Talyanna thought it strange how much she looked like her when she was young. The girl has sense made a couple appearances and subsequent vanishing acts. Based on this 'discovery' alone I have worked out a whole plot hook, should the game last through the first adventure, around the girl. Dagon has had some interaction with the local Sheriff who is also a dwarf and working for the Mayor. There have been some other minor interactions but the one that has kicked it off, is while waiting for the caravan to arrive the Mayor has asked Talyanna to bless the occasion. As she moved to the podium, a man runs from the woods, covered in blood waving his arms and is summarily shot in the back by an arrow from the tree line.
What will the party do... there is a hook, but the player that it is for has not posted so I am curious to what will happen.
Happy Gaming!
TB
Preface: All characters, for whatever reason they chose, found themselves in the small farming village of Handover. Handover supports a population of approximately three hundred inhabitants, or roughly sixty family. The man governing the village is the Mayor, the people governing the Mayor are the Merchant's Guild, a small group of business men and women of town. There is also no less than two churches, each with their whispers in the Mayor's ear.
The characters, for the most part, arrived on the day of the Spring Fest. One of two days that the village assembled, sold their wares, and celebrated their harvest. Talyanna the Holy Woman and Balan the Guardian chose to be from Handover and have just recently returned to their home after Talyanna was sent away abroad to learn her clerical duties. Balan had followed her and hired on, while Talyanna studied, as a guard. Morzin the Hunter has wondered into town, ever vigilant for undead, as he hunts them with conviction and single mindedness (literally). Dagon the Mercenary found himself in town low on funds and took up work as a guard for the Mayor. Garen the Wanderer found his way into Handover when he was sent ahead of the Spring Caravan to announce their pending arrival, as he had hired on as a caravan guard.
Things of note thus far: excellent role play. Creative and well written dialogs and descriptions have given me tons to work with. For example I mentioned a young girl in one of the first of my posts and Talyanna thought it strange how much she looked like her when she was young. The girl has sense made a couple appearances and subsequent vanishing acts. Based on this 'discovery' alone I have worked out a whole plot hook, should the game last through the first adventure, around the girl. Dagon has had some interaction with the local Sheriff who is also a dwarf and working for the Mayor. There have been some other minor interactions but the one that has kicked it off, is while waiting for the caravan to arrive the Mayor has asked Talyanna to bless the occasion. As she moved to the podium, a man runs from the woods, covered in blood waving his arms and is summarily shot in the back by an arrow from the tree line.
What will the party do... there is a hook, but the player that it is for has not posted so I am curious to what will happen.
Happy Gaming!
TB
Monday, April 26, 2010
The Characters for My PbP Game
As I mentioned in my previous post, the characters are done for the most part. I am still waiting on one more (a Magic-user it looks like). Do to the length of time it take to roll up characters in PbP, I did add some house rules; max hit points at first level, roll 7 sets of 3d6 (arrange as desired and use the leftover for gold), and two weapon fighting (which, surprising to me, no one took).
I will add more as things develop and characters become, well characters.
Morzin the Hunter, 43yo, Male, Elf (Mu/F) - AC 7 [12] (Leather), HP 7, Att Spear (1d6), Save 14 (+2 vs Magic), Special Heredity Foe, Keen Detection, Mv 12 (45lbs), Gold 0, Lvl/XP 1/0 (+5)
Dagon the Mercenary, 22yo, Male, Dwarf (F) - AC 3 [16] (Plate), HP 7, Att 2H Battle Axe (1d6+1), Save 15 (+4 vs Magic, +1 vs Death / Poison), Special Combat Machine, Heredity Foe, Keen Detection, Hard to Hit, Mv 6 (100lbs), Gold 3gp, Lvl/XP 1/0 (+0)
Garen the Wanderer, 20yo, Male, Human (F) - AC 5 [14] (Chain), HP 7, Att 2H Sword (1d6+1), Save 15, Special Combat Machine, Mv 12 (75lbs), Gold 20gp, Lvl/XP 1/0 (+0)
Talyanna the Holy Woman, 22yo, Female, Human (C) - AC 5 [14] (Chain), HP 6, Att Mace (1d6), Save 14, Special Spell Casting, Banish Undead, Mv 12 (70lbs), Gold 2gp, Lvl/XP 1/0 (+0)
Balan the Guard(ian), 23yo, Male, Human (F) - AC 3 [16] (Plate), HP 7, Att Long Sword (1d6+1), Save 15, Special Combat Machine, Mv 9 (85lbs), Gold 0gp, Lvl/XP 1/0 (+5)
TB
I will add more as things develop and characters become, well characters.
Morzin the Hunter, 43yo, Male, Elf (Mu/F) - AC 7 [12] (Leather), HP 7, Att Spear (1d6), Save 14 (+2 vs Magic), Special Heredity Foe, Keen Detection, Mv 12 (45lbs), Gold 0, Lvl/XP 1/0 (+5)
Dagon the Mercenary, 22yo, Male, Dwarf (F) - AC 3 [16] (Plate), HP 7, Att 2H Battle Axe (1d6+1), Save 15 (+4 vs Magic, +1 vs Death / Poison), Special Combat Machine, Heredity Foe, Keen Detection, Hard to Hit, Mv 6 (100lbs), Gold 3gp, Lvl/XP 1/0 (+0)
Garen the Wanderer, 20yo, Male, Human (F) - AC 5 [14] (Chain), HP 7, Att 2H Sword (1d6+1), Save 15, Special Combat Machine, Mv 12 (75lbs), Gold 20gp, Lvl/XP 1/0 (+0)
Talyanna the Holy Woman, 22yo, Female, Human (C) - AC 5 [14] (Chain), HP 6, Att Mace (1d6), Save 14, Special Spell Casting, Banish Undead, Mv 12 (70lbs), Gold 2gp, Lvl/XP 1/0 (+0)
Balan the Guard(ian), 23yo, Male, Human (F) - AC 3 [16] (Plate), HP 7, Att Long Sword (1d6+1), Save 15, Special Combat Machine, Mv 9 (85lbs), Gold 0gp, Lvl/XP 1/0 (+5)
TB
Sunday, April 25, 2010
When in doubt, whip Play-by-Post (PbP) out!
I advertised on a PbP site to see if there was any interest in playing a PbP game of Swords & Wizardry: Whitebox game. I wanted to get my fix and this seemed the best course of action do to limited RL time and limitations on finding a group locally (read rural). Surprised ~ I had quite alot of interest, even to the point of getting Private Messages (PMs) sent to me after I closed the recruitment thread. Why did the interest surprise me? It had nothing to do with the mechanics, but the fact that the site seems to cater more to v3.5 and v4 D&D crowd, than Retrocloners or the 'Old School' mentality.
I advertised as a small (3-5 player) short (4-5 scene) adventure using the Rules as Written (RaW) where I specified that I would making rulings on the rules as we went. I nearly, In My Opinion (IMO), ruined my experience by offering up my homebrew setting instead of just hand waving the ‘Conventional Fantasy Setting and Troupes’ that I planned on. I have rough notes on the setting, “Humanity’s Reign & Ruin”, but they are just hand written notes in a binder at the moment. It, the setting, also required the introduction of an additional Demi-Human race that I had not fully wrote up, fleshed out, or play-tested yet. Glad I decided to revert back to what I originally had planned.
So far we have managed to get through character creation, for the most part (one player I am currently waiting on a description and background for his character), and as we wait, finished characters are interacting with each other and NPCs within the small village of Handover. Character creation took a bit longer than I had anticipated. I suspected it would take a while, considering the medium that I chose to play over, but did not expect it to take as long as it has. I suspect that a day or two was added as players wrote up backgrounds longer (read more detailed) than I had expected and a couple chose to intertwine their backgrounds. In retrospect, it was worth the wait. Roleplay posts have been better than expected, I just hope the lethality of the S&W:WB rules does not make it all for naught.
TB
I advertised as a small (3-5 player) short (4-5 scene) adventure using the Rules as Written (RaW) where I specified that I would making rulings on the rules as we went. I nearly, In My Opinion (IMO), ruined my experience by offering up my homebrew setting instead of just hand waving the ‘Conventional Fantasy Setting and Troupes’ that I planned on. I have rough notes on the setting, “Humanity’s Reign & Ruin”, but they are just hand written notes in a binder at the moment. It, the setting, also required the introduction of an additional Demi-Human race that I had not fully wrote up, fleshed out, or play-tested yet. Glad I decided to revert back to what I originally had planned.
So far we have managed to get through character creation, for the most part (one player I am currently waiting on a description and background for his character), and as we wait, finished characters are interacting with each other and NPCs within the small village of Handover. Character creation took a bit longer than I had anticipated. I suspected it would take a while, considering the medium that I chose to play over, but did not expect it to take as long as it has. I suspect that a day or two was added as players wrote up backgrounds longer (read more detailed) than I had expected and a couple chose to intertwine their backgrounds. In retrospect, it was worth the wait. Roleplay posts have been better than expected, I just hope the lethality of the S&W:WB rules does not make it all for naught.
TB
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Building The Perfect... Well it's Not Perfect for S&W, but...
I stumbled upon a wonderful breakdown of how to Build the Perfect Class over at breeyark.org submitted by one Erin Smale. It is... inspiring IMHO, or at least to me, and just what I had been looking for to work on some Classes for my Swords & Wizardry WB Setting. It (the tables and such) appears to be a breakdown of the Rules Cyclopedia (BEMCI) however, and I need something for S&W... What to do?
Time to put on my thinking cap and see if I can tweak it to work.
Now I realize, balance is not a must for 'basic' D&D but I have to have some semblance of it at least for the PC's XP requirements to advance...
Best and Happy Gaming,
TB
Time to put on my thinking cap and see if I can tweak it to work.
Now I realize, balance is not a must for 'basic' D&D but I have to have some semblance of it at least for the PC's XP requirements to advance...
Best and Happy Gaming,
TB
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