Moving On A Budget

Over at Untimately, Brendan spoke about Wilderness Movement Costs and how to 'move on a budget'.

I really liked the idea and have decided to convert it to my thoughts of movement by time, where I have decided to think of traveling not as distance, but as time.

So, without further ado, a version of Brendan's tables with time equivalents for a league (2.5 miles) of travel:

Encumbrance	Movement Budget
Unencumbered	10 Hours
Lightly Encumbered	8 Hours
Heavily Encumbered	6 Hours

Unlike Brendan, I chose not to differentiate statistically between forms of locomotion; foot, horse, wagon, etc. For me, as an example, horses and such move at roughly the same walking speed as a person on foot with equivalent loads, or, a horse with a heavy load is going to move about as fast as a human with a heavy load. Granted, the weight of that load is significantly different, but hopefully you get my meaning. It is not until you get into forced marching and running that things change dramatically, but even then, it will all be about time. How long can you do it before giving out? This, at least for me, can be adjudicated on the fly.

Now on to the costs:

Terrain	Examples	Movement Cost	Becoming Lost
Average	Clear, City, Grasslands, Road*, Trail*	1 Hour	1 in 6
Moderate	Forest, Hills, Desert, Badlands	1.5 Hours	2 in 6
Difficult	Mountains, Heavy Forest, Jungle, Swamp	2 Hours	3 in 6

* Moving along Roads, or well marked Trails, does not result in a risk of Becoming Lost.

I would like to thank Brendan for pointing me to this simple and hopefully easy to master system. Thanks!

Best,
TB

It's Time To Move On

Yesterday, I posted about how I really like Bat in the Attic's use of leagues. Yes, I realize it is not a new phenomenon, but it was there that I grokked its awesomeness. I haven't been able to reproduce his great maps, as I had hoped, but I have figured out how to do something similar with Hexographer, while keeping Mr. OCD smiling.

The realization that distance is moot was a major breakthrough for me, believe it or not. I don't really care about distance anymore. Why? Because the only thing that is in distance are maps and movement.Strange considering that mapping is what makes Mr. OCD standup and flail about as if his arms and legs are independent of his body. Now, maps and movement may seem pretty important to the game, even maybe a pillar, but I have chosen not to think in distance any longer. I intend to think in time. Much more of the game, IMHO, is based on the unit of measure of time.

How did I come to this decision? Mr. OCD pointed me to it. I was trying to extrapolate the accuracy of the one hour / league, and it worked out.


Using a 5:1 sub-hex to hex ratio:
2.5 miles / league / 13200' equals 1 hour (Overland Scale)
2640' / .5 miles equals 12 min or 720 sec
528' equals 2.4 min or 144 sec (Settlement Scale at a 'block' distance)
105.6' equals 28.8 secs
21.12' equals 5.76 sec (close enough to a 20' / 6 sec combat round, even for Mista OCD)

What does that solve? Well, for me, I no longer have to think in distance, but rather in time! Torch life is in time. Rations are in time. Spell length, preparation, and casting, are in time. Everything else is in units of time! I can't help but to think that this will help 'in game', not to mention with my brain curdling attempts at mapping! Win-Win in my book. Hope it pans out while playing too. I know it has helped with mapping, which I hope to share shortly.

Surely not a significant discovery to the blog-as-sphere, but I am glad I have finally made the discovery! Or, at least, learned what others already know.

Best and happy gaming,
TB

Microlite20: Stats Start To Solidify

**Edit: My 100th, and I missed it**

Thanks to the author of Beacon, Todd's response here, got me over the mental block I was having. Now I didn't take the suggestion as is, but the result is worth thinking about. The question I have to answer is, "Do the changes that I would make add to the game, based on my design goal, or detract from it?" Answer, "I don't know yet."

I am fairly certain that converting to Fortitude, Will, and Reaction is a solid decision. The vernacular is familiar enough to the 'old hands' that I don't feel it would be distracting, and might as I suggested, add to the feel I am going for. A fair tradeoff, if not a slight advantage for making the change.

But what about 'Comprehension'? Comprehension: 'capacity of the mind to perceive and understand; power to grasp ideas; ability to know'. Or in my laymen's terms, 'speed of mentally processing stimulus.' I like the symmetry. You have the toughness and speed of both the body and the mind in four stats. Combining each individually with a M20 skill results in a large pool of Saving Throw options.

My concerns are that a) it might alienate conventional D&D players by going too far afield, and b) comprehension is not 'commonly' used enough to be understood in this context.

In retrospect, I used Charisma primarily as the strength of the Mind stat, when I used it. But 'Will' is more fitting. So, in this, perhaps what Todd said is correct, "As a proponent of Charisma I would convert it to Will and come up with something else for the MIND stat (or just go fortitude, reflex, Mind and Will.)" This is how I had used Charisma in the past, but my OCD will not release the symmetrical beauty of the option discussed earlier in this post...

Okay, maybe it has not solidified, but I am vigorously mixing it around in my melon! Come on Jello!!!

*pop*
TB

Question? What question?

Mirolite20: Considering Stats

Not having gotten any feed back from my initial discussion of Stats for the conversion of Microlite20 to the system I want to use for Humanity's Reign & Ruin, I flipped a coin and decided to move on by expanding on the assumption that I would use Fortitude, Reflex, and Will as the default Stats. These will equate to Strength, Dexterity, and Mind of the standard Microlite20 rulebook.

As I mentioned in the proceeding post, Charisma is an often added stat for Microlite20 (simply M20 for here on out). Though I usually play with this added stat, I am apprehensive in trying to add it, based on my current decision to switch to the fore mentioned; Fortitude, Reflex, and Will stats, because there is no save in this capacity found in the source material (d20 SRD).

Proponents of the, "Don't use Charisma, just make it a Mind save" for conventional M20, have a point, considering my choice to change the default stats. Though I did not like the idea of using Mind as a charismatic save previously, it does makes a bit more sense to me now as a Will save. Even so, I have been toying with the thought of adding some form of 'Composure' stat, and relating save.

On Stat Values: Determining stat values vary from incarnation to incarnation of M20. Purest Essence, which I consider to be the default version, has Players roll 4d6 and drop the lowest and assign them as they are rolled. I had been thinking that I would drop Stat values altogether, but have reconciled that notion to my pending True20 project of M20. So how do I want to generate Stat values? Neither of these approaches appeal to me for this iteration of rules. The convention of 3d6 in order is suitably 'old school', and has the advantage of being gritty especially considering my adaptation of Feats, which I will blog about in later post. Though I want gritty, I don't feel compelled to gimp the Players out of playing the Class that they want to play. This is a rather weighted decision because of the possible perception that I am limiting Players on Race, which again I will address in subsequent posts. The short of it however, is that in Humanity's Reign, Humans will be the primary Race and in Humanity's Ruin, Demi-Humans will be.

So, currently I am planning on going with having Players roll 3d6, assigning the highest to the 'Prime' Stat for their Class and the remaining two scores (three if I decide to go with a 'Composure' Stat) go in order for the other two (or three) Stats.

On Stat Bonuses: Like Stat Values, Stat Bonus calculations vary widely on their mathematical determination depending on version of M20 you are playing. Purest Essence says, "Stat bonus = (STAT-10)/2, round down." On the high side, this could grant a +4 bonus with an eighteen Stat Value ((18-10)/2). Though this corresponds to the source material, I am much more partial to the normal spread found in older versions of the game, ranging from -3 to +3 with the bell curve resting on a +0 for the 9 to 12 range.

So, do I want to stick with the convention established with Purest Essence and the SRD, or do I want to tone it down and flatten the bell curve  bit? This is a harder question to answer in my opinion, and one that I am not ready to decide upon at this time. Advantage goes to flattening the bell curve for the gritty feel I want, but unlike changing the Stat names, changing it adds one more hurdle for compatibility.

I hope you have enjoyed watching my head implode over what might be thought of as trivial decisions, but I would REALLY like to hear some input, or thoughts, on the matter.

TB

I Am Truly Torn...

About what I should/want to be doing. I just got done watching an... 'interesting' movie, The Lost Future. Surprisingly, it wasn't terrible, but I digress. At the moment, I am considering whether to go play Oblivion, Blog about how I want to implement Microlite20, or read the latest version of Beacon (release 5, as of this post).

Life seems to answer many of my questions for me as I procrastinate; the living room (where the Xbox is) is full of kids watching T.V., and though I need to read Beacon before my pending play-test, I don't want it's greatness to influence my first decision on how I want to tweak the system to give the setting its own feel.

So to get started, for those that aren't familiar with Microlite20, "it is a trimmed-down, subminiature version of the Primary Fantasy SRD rules (see license for more info) that has been designed to be quick and easy to play. The goal was to create a simpler game, but one where all of the resources of Primary Fantasy SRD (monsters, spells, adventures and equipment) could be used without conversion."" ~ Microlite20 Purest Essence.

Basic Microlite20 kicks things off with Stats. It only uses three of the six 'common' stats you would find in other fantasy role-playing games, and its source SRD; Strength, Dexterity, and Mind. Charisma is a commonly house-ruled stat, though I am somewhat torn on its use myself. But, I am not sure that I want to use any of them for this incarnation of the system to represent adventurers in Humanity's Reign & Ruin (referred to as simply HR&R from here onward).

My intention for HR&R is for it to be gritty and low magic. How can I reflect this through the rules even now, as I approach "putting pen to paper"? Stats. Perhaps, rather than be conventional, I can convey the gritty feel now. As I skim the basic rules, something caught my eye. Something that always catches my eye, "Note that there are no “saving throws” in this game; use Physical + STR or DEX bonus for Fortitude and Reflex saves. Saving against magic (Will save) is usually MIND bonus + your level."

Everyday in HR&R should be a day to save versus something, so why not just use these commonly removed items for stats? Perhaps I should just use; Fortitude, Reflex, and Will, instead or Strength, Dexterity, and Mind. If players have a preconceived notion of this verbiage being associated with 'saving their proverbial bacon', then could having them as stats convey the gritty life threatening nature of the setting I want to produce? Or, as I fear (1), this would be too large a step away from the conventional?

Well that is the first small stumbling block in my path to getting underway, getting what is in my head and in a small mound of written notes, into a congealed setting and rules set.

I would love to hear some thoughts on this.

Best,
TB

(1) Thought on Fear as I wrote the above post: How to project it into the game, by implementing some mechanic that makes sense?

Critical Hits...

Something about -C's post here, has me thinking about an easy way to do Critical Hits. The post there really only mentions Critical Hits in passing, but something made me think, 'taking a penalty to hit should equate to something like a called shot, which in turn should cause more damage.' It was probably the similarities of how HPs started higher than other games at first level for Hackmaster. Same is true with my current rules preference; Microlite20.

This lead me to the following, which is not currently play-tested:

Taking a negative modifier to hit (say -3) will reduce increase the chance of a Critical (usually a natural 20) by an equal amount (17-20 in this example).

Typically in Microlite20, Critical Hits equate to max damage, but considering the inflated HPs that a character starts off with (typically Con Score, plus modifier, plus 1d6) we are looking at a rather large beginning threshold. I think to play-test it, a critical will do max damage + damage die roll (keeping in mind that my version of said mechanics will be 1d6 HP and Damage dice, exclusively). This could lead to 2d6 or 2-12 points of "damage" on a critical, which I think will scale well with the increased HP at 1st level

Part of me wants to make the damage die roll exploding as well, similar to what is described in the above linked post mentioned with Hackmaster.

I hope this will dovetail nicely with other alternate rules that I want to interject, such as Shields Shall Splinter (need to find link to originator) and some other choice bits.

Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think...
TB

PS - I hope the new style is acceptable. My old eyes don't care much for black print on white expanses much anymore.

"Locked" In Combat....

Yes, it has been a while. I am tired, lacking individuality, and creativity at the moment. But, I have to get back to blogging....

I just wanted to expound on something I thought of while reading through, and cleaning out, some blog posts in my bookmarks. Namely on these from Zak and Telecanter back in... April, I believe.

Procedural Lockpicking - by Telecanter 

Making Picking Locks Fun, Disarming traps + Die Drop Fumbles - by Zak 

 

I think based on reading these and my current project, I wonder how cool it would be to make this into a combat mechanic? Something like:

• (1) Bump = Block
• (2) Probe = Thrust
• (3) Rake = Slash
• (4) Twist = Dodge

Need to take out a goblin, roll 4d4 and read them as what must be done to take them out: (2-Thrust, 4-Dodge, 4-Dodge, 3-Slash). Once the Player 'unlocks' the necessary move combination they get to describe how the Goblin is taken out. If they miss by one, they are 'stiff' and all unsolved dice are re-rolled (randomized)? If they miss by two, they are 'jammed', take a wound, and all unsolved dice are randomized?

In the spirit of Trollsmyth's "Shields Shall Splinter", perhaps getting 'jammed', the character could sacrifice a shield or some armor to avoid it like Zak's "Get out of jam free" cards?

I have NO idea what I am talking about actually but the idea sounds interesting... Not very Old School, but... hey, I'm blogging again!

As always,
TB

Weathering the Weather

Over on Roles, Rules, and Rolls, Roger blogged about 'My Take on Damage from Travel.' I have seen, and used, many rules that pertain to environmental challenges. Some worked, some didn't. I thought about the ones I liked and bounced it of his 'requirements':

• Players traveling in less than ideal conditions should risk daily damage to Hit Points.
• The damage must be real Hit Points and heal in the standard manner - no extra bookkeeping. 
• The damage should scale, so that high level characters do not outlast low level ones to a ridiculous degree.
• Easy to remember.

and decided for me the easiest approach to cover these areas and 'get-the-job-done' would simply take what is already there and use it: Elementals. Make it combat against the Elements, which it is in a sense. Cold? Through some Water and Air Elementals at them. Just describe it as a cold wind that cuts through their clothing and slices to the bone. Rain and mud slogging conditions? Water and Earth Elementals. "Attacks' would be building a fire, finding shelter, layering/removing clothes, etc. Give them a chance to hit with a d6 damage every time they take proper precautions or actions to circumvent the effects.

Base the AC of the 'Elementals' on how well the party is prepared for the condition. HPs based on how 'strong' the conditions are to over come.

Well, just a tip from your 'Uncle Larry',
TB

The Writing Actually Begins!

My Decleration of Intent seems to have gotten my mind right! The writing has begun and the big change for me, other than scrapping a large chunk of the bad fiction, is that I have decided to use Microlite20 as my go-to-rules set. I realize that many might not consider it 'OS' to use an SRD derivative work, but playing with Microlite20 with my girls sure has the old style vibe for me. Take it or leave it, I am confident that I have made the right choice. Especially after working on something as small as the Mini-Gazetteer using S&W:WB.

Just a rough mockup for a cover. Though, I am not sure what more I would want in one to be honest. Alot of my layout inspiration is coming from Beacon at the moment.

Best,
TB

Bookmark Clearance

While digging through a multitude of bookmarks, to see what I could dislodge from the browser, I found two that I had forgotten about and would like to share:

Dawn of Worlds: a minimalistic world creation game that allows you and your gaming group to build a full fledged setting from ground up. Roll some dice, spend the points on anything from terrain creation to cultural explosion and wars. When the evenings over, you should have a map, time-line, and a lot of fun!

The Mule Abides: 9 Minute Campaign Design. An old post from Nov 2009 that asks questions to assist in describing your campaign setting in '9' minutes...

Nope, I can't do it either. But interesting none-the-less.

Enjoy,
TB

Poll: Every Hit Point of Damage is a...

Seeing a few of the recent posts on 'critical hits' and 'damage below 0' tables, I pulled up an old Trollsmyth bookmark: Playing with Death and Dismemberment. Why I had bookmarked it in the first place wasn't for a critical hit table, but for the novel idea of helm affects that were presented. Something that actually gives a reason for writing 'helm' on the character sheet in Oe D&D!

Now in retrospect, I like the idea of how it strengthens the idea that hit points are not necessarily physical, or at least not major life changing physical, until you get to below zero. I have often toyed with the idea of changing the name of Hit Points to something else, but just could not find the right noun. Besides, I might be burned as a heritic.

With this however, I imagine that armor would be better suited as DR. I don't know. What I am curious about is how do you envision/play-out hit points in your game?

Best,
TB

The Wondering Mind.

Last night, when I couldn't sleep, I started thinking about making the 25 mile map that I did for the Mapping Population Experiments posts (which I haven't finish and intend to today) into a small Gazetteer. (Perhaps my mind wondering is why I couldn't sleep) But, the train of thought was interesting none-the-less. It started with me looking at the blog stats and seeing what people were looking at. I want to work on Ukarea, but I want to put out interesting material too. What's the point of putting it on a blog if no one reads it? I could just as easily do it in a three ring binder. I noticed heightened interest in the Sara Bellum, an Elegia Character, post that I statted up for that rules set.

Glancing over the post to see if I could discover the interest, I noticed that there was something that I liked: Attribute Checks. With this in mind, and an attempt to put myself asleep reading the section on creating settlements in the 3.5 DMG, I thought this might work well for NPCs, to represent their 'skill'. I don't care for a full blown skill system, but a trade/background system might work well. Perhaps for every 5 years of experience a +1 modifier to the Attribute Check would be in order. This could also be utilized to represent the quality of equipment/materials that a 'professional' produces. Perhaps the Attribute Check roll represents the 'save' for that material item. "Ol' Thomas weaves the best ropes in four Baronies...."

Just getting my thoughts down so they, hopefully, won't keep me up tonight.

Best,
TB

Leaning on Freeform

Thanks to  Talysman telling me where to find what I sought in my last post, I now have more to think about. I want to finish my Population Mapping Experiment first before I delve too deeply into it, but for now, I will throwout my initial thoughts on the Free-form Magic System he linked to for me and how I might want to adapt it to the Ukarea setting:

• Magic will probably follow the verb-noun format commonly found in such free-form magic systems, and may include adjectives for additional oomph.
• Magic is rare and scorned in Ukarea for the most part.
• Magic will be difficult and taxing for casters. Modification of DCs, not common in OE/Basic D&D, should be addressed.
• Not sure if I want to retain separation between Mages and Clerics, or even if I want to keep a traditional Cleric in the setting at this point.
• Magic will be primarily elemental based, do to the setting history (which I realize I may not have even covered on the blog yet.) Using magic directly on 'life forces' is going to have to take mastery in the magic to do, as it is a culmination of all the elements.

More to come, once I have finished the Population Mapping Experiments,
TB

Mechanics for Horror, Fear, Sanity, etc.

I haven't got a full post for today that has anything revolutionary to do with 0e. I just thought I'd throw out there what is ruminating in my melon at the moment.

I have been considering how to inspire emotions in players and characters alike. I know many guffaw at the thought of a game mechanic to do just that. I realize people have strong feelings about introducing such mechanics also. I am contemplating such mechanics because of my currently only medium to role-play is Play-by-Post (PbP) and conveying such sensations through PbP is different and more complicated than in a Face-to-Face (FtF) game.

So, my thought in a nutshell, is if you don't know if you are scaring them with your words, frighten the shiat out of them with your mechanics...

More on this as I develop it,
TB

Putting the Abstract into Fighting

A few days back, on the B/X BLACKRAZOR blog, JB talked about removing the To-Hit roll out of combat and making hits automatic. This got me to thinking that I could expound on an older post of mine.

- Break -

Ok, the break is because I started that at 2:30 this morning and thankfully I stopped when I did. I was amazingly tired, but could not sleep. I was having all kinds of 'grandious' ideas at the time though they probably amounted to nothing more than a game that was not D&D. Which, I will say, is not such a bad thing, but I hesitate to succumb to my ADD. Or, give it room to flourish, let alone fertilize it. I do however have to get it out of my head. So, intention: get it down and force myself to forget about it.

If the following is true:

• Hit Points are abstractions of Heroic Resources that have to be whittled down before you can actually damage them.
• To Hit rolls are just another mechanical save for the target and can be eliminated.
• Hit Dice are source of an abstract randomly generation of a character's potential prowess (HPs).
• Damage rolls are used to remove that potential prowess and to determine the severity of the eventual physical blow.

I came up with a whole bunch of stuff that boiled down to a single roll mechanic that didn't really resemble 0e D&D anymore.

Basically one would use Red, White, and Blue dice and based on my thoughts in my older post, linked to above, would be rolled for representations of the the abstractions, or would be physical representations of the same. Wow, I realize that makes little sense, but I know what I am thinking but just can't articulate it well. So I will attempt to use examples.



Combat is resolved by dropping the Initiative and To Hit rolls. Players grab a number of white dice equal to their Hit Dice (rounded down), a Red Die, and a Blue Die if they have a shield. The Red Die represents their damage potential, the White Die their combat prowess (for lack of a better phrase), and the Blue Die their shield (if they have one).

The person that goes first is the person that declares an attack first. Imagine a group sitting around the table with a hand full of dice (not that many actually) staring each other down (would like to try this in an E6 game). I kind of envision that calm before the storm, as opponents circle and size each other up. If no one initiates, the side with the most participants goes first. If that is a tie, IDK, roll.

Once someone declares a target for an attack, they cast their dice. The defender does likewise. The Attacker's Red Die is turned from potential into action with the roll, and if it beats any of the Defender's White Die, damage is inflicted; the White Die is permanently removed and taken from the table (Does NOT go back into the hand in subsequent rounds), Hit Points are subtracted equal to the damage of the Red Die to the opponent. However, the defender may use their Blue Die to Block (used Blue Dice are removed from the table but are added back into the hand on the next combat round), or their Red Die to Parry (Losing their attack and removing the Red Die from the table but not permanently, and not losing Hit Points either). Now the Defender (assuming they are still alive - have HPs remaining) can counter attack, or hold their action until their target presents themselves. Of course, they could be chopped down before they get the chance.

Once Dice are cast, they remain on the table until all participants have a chance to act or the target is unconscious or dead.

Tracking monsters is rather easy, but granted more difficult than normal. A notation might be: Orc 1 (4) or Troll 6+3 (24) for HD (HP). When the monster (or the dice representing it) is recovered from the table, the HD should be updated so that when they are cast for the next round an appropriate number of White Die will be thrown.

If all HPs are removed, but there are White Die still present (HD) then the opponent is unconscious. If all the White Die are removed, but their are still HP the opponent is Dead!

That's it in a nutshell, and I can see it bordering on a totally different mechanic than traditional 0e D&D, or even a mechanic for miniature war games but I think I like it enough to try it (or something similar) if given the chance (not likely)

If anyone tries this, or something similar, please let me know how it goes.

Best,
TB

Thought: an option could be that if the opponent loses a White Die, but is not dead and left on the table, the dice are picked up and re-cast (used Red Dice do NOT get added back into the re-cast hand). Some dice might be lower this throw (representing them staggered and off balance from the previous successful attack) or they all may be higher (representing them fortifying themselves from the same).

The Helm

A full re-write on this is pending. Talysman, thanks. There are tons of flaws do to my haste to get my thoughts down. I know what I want to do, I just have to make it, make sense.

Reading the Beyond the Black Gate blog I got to thinking about how the helm offended my OCD senses when I was younger. I had forgotten about it until now, but once again, I am obsessing on it.

For the record, I almost exclusively use Swords & Wizardry: Whitebox (though I am leaning towards possibly switching to Swords & Wizardry: Core rules, but that is for another post) and occasionally refer to Mentzer Basic (BECMI or RC). Any other rules systems mentioned here will more than likely be tagged as such. I also prefer the Ascending Armor Class but usually try to mention both when the subject is approached, for those that prefer Descending Armor Class.

Now, about helmets. Based on replies at the afore mentioned blog, I have decided to mash a couple of the ideas together. I should give credit to each author I suppose, but there are quite a few of them, so I will just say, "Go read the linked blog. It has tons of good info."

Damn, ADD kicking in again! So, here is what I intend to try for my next game:

• Not wearing a helm for the appropriate suit of arms is a +1 [-1] penalty to that Armor Class (Referred to as AC from here on out). So wearing a helm (the default) gives you the listed AC. Note: There is NO penalty for not wearing a helm when 'Unarmored'. Unarmored is not an AC as far as I am concerned and it retains its 9 [10] and wearing one when 'Unarmored' does not improve your AC.
• Since wearing a helm is the default, Surprise, Initiative, Hear Noise, etc. is 4in12 (the old school 2in6 taken up to a d12 for Background Skills and such, which I hope to post one day). This is reduced to 3in12, possibly 2in12, when not wearing a helm.
• Great Helms will provide an additional -1 [+1] to AC as do shields, but this type of helm will also add a +1 to the Xin12 formula for Surprise, Initiative, Hear Noise, etc.
• When attacking; on a modified To Hit roll of 19+, the attacker may call the head of a helmed opponent as their target, and on a modified To Hit roll of 17+ the attacker may call the head of an un-helmed opponent as their target.
• Hitting a helmed head does regular damage, but the target must make a Saving Throw with a +2. Failing the Saving Throw causes the defender to be dazed in addition to the damage and will be at -1 for their next round.
• Hitting an un-helmed head does full damage (no roll required), and the target must make a Saving Throw or be knocked unconscious for 1d6 rounds. (Considering having a -1 dazed effect even if Saving Throw is passed.)

These are just initial ideas and I would love to hear feed back before I playtest them. Please, thoughts?

TB

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

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