Another GURPS 4E Resource - Old West NPCs

I worked on this for a while, and I will probably get back to it. The plan was a sixguns & sorcery setting, with the Old West standing in for the more typical Barbarian or Medieval background. I love the idea, and I want to play in it, but my ideas for it are a little further-reaching than I'd wanted. Still, I have this for it. "This" refers to a set of NPC templates, built out of the NPCs in The Knuckleduster Cowtown Creator, one of the most useful resources for an Old West setting (whether game or fiction writing) that I've ever seen. The templates in that product were given stats for either Deadlands or D20, which wasn't very useful to me. However, GURPS Deadlands included conversion rules for Deadlands to GURPS Deadlands in the Dime Novel adventure titled Aces & Eights. Using the conversions straight resulted in heavily overpowered NPCs (the "Loafer" template, for example, originally weighed in at over 100 points!), so I toned them down considerably using a number of techniques. I still think that the point values might be a touch high, but they should work well enough for a high adventure setting. I also didn't convert the train-based templates (Conductor, Train Robber, etc.), as there aren't any trains in my sixguns & sorcery setting.

As usual, because of the lengthy nature, the actual stats are behind a cut.

Feeling Stupid, Plus Random Babble

Random babblings, not unlike these

I was going to post some more in the series about what I'd like to see in a tabletop roleplaying game, but it is too hot and humid to think or move. We don't have air conditioning here, mainly because that isn't a priority in our normal climate.

Anyway, I've been seeing some smart stuff by people about demographics that touches on and in many ways improves upon the material I'd been writing here. Rick Stump over at Don't Split The Party started on Wednesday with a really good article titled "Peasants, Nobles, Mages, Normals, and Heroes - How Many NPCs have Levels?", then followed that up with "Just How Big is your Army?" and "Economics of Having Levels". Now, Matt Jackson of msjx has weighed in with a piece titled "Low level characters, and the effects on play" that is pretty much a must-read for anyone playing a D&D-like game, I think.

You're probably aware that there has been some stupidity going on about the new D&D version because some people don't like two names (out of eight!) listed as "Additional Consultation provided by". As time has gone on, too, it's been conclusively shown that the complaints leveled by those people against those two names have been a tissue of lies and fabrication. There are plenty of reasons to dislike one or the other of them, sure - I'm none too fond of one of them as a human being, though I think that the other one is particularly smart and funny, and I read both because they are both of them smart - but to manufacture insane accusations because a person doesn't like them? And then to try to smear WotC with that? Those people doing the manufacturing of calumnies are human waste. And that is the end of my involvement with that topic on this blog.

Does anyone have any good resources (not gaming ones) on the characteristics of sailing ships and galleys? I'm interested to see what actual speeds of travel and cargo capacities were like for those, especially from the era of the 13th to 16th centuries, all the way up to the beginning of the 17th. I wouldn't mind information on the Viking Age Scandinavian vessels, either. Surprisingly, there are few hard numbers in my books on pirates (Rogoziński doesn't have much of anything outside of some scattered information on cargo capacities, for example, and neither does Cordingly; the others tend to focus on personalities or, like Peter Lamborn Wilson, the economics and politics of locations).

I am coming along with the revision/retroclone of Fantasy Wargaming. Part of that process has me looking at source materials, so I've been re-reading old magical Grimoires and examining the various names and functions of demons. Those guys got a lot of that stuff pretty much spot-on, though they abridged their sources quite a lot (perhaps not surprisingly, as they had limited space). Since I'm planning to just dump the background that takes up about half the book (there are plenty of resources on the Middle Ages available, and I'll just point people toward those), I'm going to have a lot of extra space available to fill those abridged gaps. For those interested in such things, I plan on sticking mainly to the Solomonic Grimoires, which seem to be the main source for the original game, plus the Grimoirium Verum and Clm 849 "The Munich Handbook of Necromancy". There are a ton of named spirits in that last, though, many of whom are not given any real information outside of their names, so I will almost certainly abridge that one greatly.

Speaking of that, does anyone know a good listing of Saints that were known in the period 500CE-1500CE or so? Concentrating on the Hundred Years' War period would be really good (so, no Joan of Arc, since she wasn't sanctified until the 20th century). I like the FW list, but I want to check their information and maybe expand it a little.

One plan I have is to add the pantheons of the Welsh/British Celts, the Gaels, and the Slavic peoples. All of those were extant at least during part of FW's nominal period, and so I think that they should be dealt with to some extent. I have useful resources for those already. I wonder how best to approach dvoverie (the Slavic practice of being both Christian and pagan; it means "two faiths") in FW's rules? Probably just like it does for sorcery: invoking non-Christian gods is a Sin of whatever magnitude (probably the same as for invoking demons), and stick with the Christian Virtue/Sin templates for those trying to hold two faiths.

In my ideal game, of course, all of this Piety stuff is simplified down considerably. I'll get around to talking about that soon enough.

I haven't done any work on the Top Secret retroclone in the past couple of weeks. I need to pick that one back up, too.

AD&D Demographic Data Part II

Serves me right for wanting to get something out there before I really let it settle. While watching the World Cup matches, I figured out a reasonably quick and easy way to properly adjust the percentage chances for each of the ID# categories in the last post. So, here is the adjusted data (after the cut). All that needs to be done now is to divide each ID#'s percentage among the classes included in that group. This could be done in various ways, which is why I am leaving it as the raw data. One could simply divide the percentage evenly among the classes, or one could weight the classes and divide the percentage according to that weight. One could even make a priority list and give the full percentage to whichever class comes highest in priority. The details will vary by setting.

Note that when that division of percentages is finished, there should be a bit left over. That covers the "hopeless characters", who don't qualify for any class.

Without further ado, here's the corrected data, now just listed as ID#, classes, raw stat minimums of the category, and then the odds of that category occurring (multiply by 100 to get actual % chance):

AD&D Demographic Data

I like simulation. I like it when the game rules imply things about the setting, or vice versa. One of the D&D assumptions is that random people are "rolled up" by the 3d6 in order method. PCs might be different, but that doesn't mean that the setting as a whole is.

When working on figuring out what the rules imply about the setting, one thing I noticed is that there isn't a good, reliable accounting of how many people in a given setting are members of which character classes. Gary Gygax seems to have just made something up for his table in the DMG, and no one has bothered to improve much on that intuitive method.

But we know some things. According to the DMG, 1 person in 100 has a chance of having a character class. Of those 1%, though, there will be different numbers of randomly-rolled characters who qualify for each of the various classes.

Now, sure, we can just make something up and deal with that. That works, and is fine. But if we had a better way available… why not use it?

All of the numbers involved have a mathematical probability. It just takes a lot of effort to work out if done manually (trust me, that's how I started to approach this). A computer program, though, can work through all of the possibilities in just minutes or seconds. So I wrote one. Here's the raw data regarding the basic AD&D 1E classes (excepting the Bard, which is more a matter of choice; suffice it to say that Bards are extraordinarily rare in AD&D 1E). This set of data does not include the UA classes at all, though if someone requests it I could probably put that together. It also doesn't include anything about demihumans. I haven't consolidated that information yet, and there are some characteristic maximums to deal with that I would have to write into the program, not to mention the characteristic modifiers that change probabilities around.

The data is in the following format: an ID#, the name of the classes that qualify under that ID#'s set of characteristics, and the characteristics themselves, then on the next line it gives the probability of a random roll of 3d6 in order qualifying for that set of statistics, and finally on the last lines a list of the ID#s that qualify for the ID#, but include one or more stats that are higher (all of the probabilities of those ID#s are included in the probability listed, so they have to be subtracted out). My purpose for all of this is to work out what classes a given set of stats can qualify for, subtracting the probabilities of the higher sets from that of the lower sets that they also qualify for. Then, the probability of each set of stats will be divided among the set of classes. I'm also thinking about ways to modify the software to do that work for me, but I don't know if I'll be able to do that with my level of programming skill.

I don't plan to do this myself for the raw AD&D classes (unless I can work out how best to code it), so I'm giving that data out for someone who might be interested in doing so. There are only 76 sets that qualify for different groups of classes in AD&D, so it probably wouldn't take all that long to work through them. The data I'm working with includes over 500 distinct ID#s, divided into three main groups to cover the three main culture groups so far in the Middle Sea world, so I have my work cut out for me. It's nowhere near as imposing as it was before I wrote this program, though.

Data after the cut. Remember that it is the raw data as described above. I am also willing to take any set of classes and stat requirements and do the same for others, since the software is easily modified for just about anything. It won't easily handle very complex things, though, like requirements that one of several stats be above a value, but the other stats of that set only need to be of a lower value (like the Psionicist, which requires a 10 in Int, Wis, and Cha, but at least one must be 16, which particular case I did work out for my own use, but requires more modification of the basic program than just plugging in a set of classes). Drop me a line if you want this kind of data.

Quick Random NPCs For D&D-like Games

Found this by searching for "random fantasy
characters".
By dawnsio-ar-y-dibyn, licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License

Sometimes, you know what sort of NPC you want, what class they should be and so forth, but you don't want to either pick the stats or roll until you finally get a set of stats that is high enough to join the class. There's a method in the DMG, but it isn't really close in terms of normal spread of stat numbers. For those situations, I have come up with the following sets of tables. The assumption is that only characters with appropriate stats will join the class (obviously), and that you don't want to keep rolling sets of stats until you finally get an appropriate set. Most of the charts use d1000, which is rolling three distinctive 10-sided dice and using one for the hundreds place, one for the tens place, and one for the ones place, just like rolling a d%/d100. The higher charts could be replaced by a d20, a d10, or even a d4 roll, but I stuck with d% as the smallest die I'd use here. You could probably round the d1000 tables to d%, but I'm not interested in doing that.

Note that higher leveled characters should probably have slightly higher stats, due to the increased likelihood of survival. Delta discusses the matter here, which gives the following adjustments (do with the information as you will):

Level	STR	CON	DEX
2	+3	+2	+1
3-4	+4	+2	+1
5-7	+4	+3	+2
8+	+4	+4	+3

The charts were pretty easy to make, actually, just requiring some time with a calculator and some tables of the properties of 3d6 and 4d6s3 ("4d6, keep the best three") rolls. I just reduced the possibilities to those that were required, and divided the number of results that can result in each number by that value. The fraction, rounded off to the nearest thousandth, provided the width of each result. In a few cases, the rounding resulted in a variation of 1 or 2 points, which I worked into the table as the feeling took me.

The following charts are organized by the required stat (obviously, if the required stat is 3, you would just roll the stat as normal), and by the method used for the character, either 3d6 as normal, or 4d6 discarding the low die (so that the character can be either normally-distributed or on par with the PCs if you use that method). I'll put in a jump cut for your sanity.

Miscellanea

I've been saving up some links that should be of interest.

Lake Nyos in Cameroon was the site of a terrible natural disaster. Imagine PCs walking down the road, and coming across a village full of dead people and animals. Dozens of dead cows and people lie around, with no sign of violence on the bodies. As they travel further, the magnitude of the disaster becomes apparent, as they find village after village also empty of the living. There are no clues as to what happened in the small valley surrounding a lake.

Some underground tunnels of the ancient world, plus stuff about oracles.

Over at Hill Cantons, ckutalik asks if sandbox campaigns follow a general pattern. Seems like an interesting and fruitful area of inquiry for "old school" games.

Talysman at The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms discusses what life level drains in D&D-like games represent in the fictional world.

Checking in on the WotC DNDNext playtest, I learn that I have lost pretty much all interest in it. "At Will" spells are bad enough, but now they will scale with level. Rogues are being turned back into weak fighters instead of skilled specialists. And there is the ongoing problem of too many hit points at low levels. It just doesn't seem like the sort of game that interests me.

Black Vulmea has a lesson in how to make random encounters not suck. Now I understand why some people don't like random encounters, though I still don't share their qualms. It's because they don't understand what random encounters are supposed to be: a tool to make event generation easier for the Referee.

Zompist offers a review of a book about medieval economics, including a pretty good discussion of the basics.

A few months ago, Fantasy Faction offered up a discussion of magic systems for fiction. Some of those notes may prove of value to gamers, as well.

Ten Curses For Magic Items

The Hope Diamond

Over on Tenkar's Tavern, one of the commenters to a post on magic items noted:

[I]n my games… Magic swords are always intelligent, always have additional powers, always aligned, and always have Ego.

Other magic items are always cursed. They can still be used, but there's always some danger or drawback associated with them. I try not to let them feel "reliable".

I think that's an excellent idea. Magic items in stories are frequently mixed blessings at best, and this would be a good way to present that. I do think that there should be some exceptions, such as the gifts of the elves, but the idea of an item that gives a benefit but takes a toll seems quite sound to me as a way to keep the players from becoming overly powerful too quickly, to prevent the issues of "predicted power level" that recent editions of D&D have fallen prey to, and to keep magic items mysterious and full of wonder. So, here's a short list of possible minor curses that can be added to magic items:

1. The person who carries this item has a strong scent, allowing those who track by scent to follow the path unerringly, and causing a 1 or 2 point penalty to reaction rolls in social situations.
2. The owner suffers a 1 point penalty to all rolls related to one of: combat (excluding damage), reaction rolls, saving throws, other. If the owner tries to get rid of the item, it will mysteriously reappear on his person unless he can get another person to voluntarily take it from him.
3. If exposed to disease, the possessor of this item has double the normal chance of contracting the disease.
4. Unintelligent carnivores will always attack the possessor of the item, no reaction roll required. (Or, the reaction roll can be at a penalty if the Referee prefers.)
5. 10% of any money acquired by the possessor of this item vanishes without trace. If the possessor tries to get rid of the item, it will reappear as in curse #2.
6. The person who carries this item cannot move faster than half speed. This affects both base movement rate and movement rate modified by armor or encumbrance.
7. If given a choice of targets, undead will choose the bearer of this item over other possibilities.
8. Followers of anyone who has used this item in the last 30 days halve their natural loyalty value. After 30 days of not using the item, loyalty returns to normal.
9. The possessor of the item becomes addicted to it. If it is not used in a 24 hour period, the possessor takes 1 hit point of damage. Withdrawal requires not using the item, and making a saving throw against paralyzation or poison each day for 6 consecutive days. Failing a saving throw requires starting over from zero. Hit point loss continues to occur until the addiction is broken.
10. The item has an alignment, Ego, and purpose just as a magic sword.

There are certainly many more possibilities. If you have some, please share them in the comments, or make a post on the subject yourself. If you do, please come back here and let me know where the post is.

Dragon Magazine Articles

As I prepare for running the Black Blood of the Earth game using 1E AD&D, I have been looking through issues of Dragon magazine for articles that will be useful to me. These include house rules, minor subsystems that govern particular aspects of the game, and so on. Here's a list of some that I think will be useful to me:

"Living in a Material World", #81. A way of making use of the material component rules in spellcasting. Gives the likelihood of finding the components, the cost, and so on.

"Fighters for a Price", #109. Extensive notes on mercenaries and how to hire them.

"Giant-sized Weapons", #109. Weapons for people who are bigger than humans.

"For King and Country", #101. The best alignment system for D&D-type games, possibly excepting the original Law/Neutral/Chaos system.

"Tables and Tables of Troops", #99. Expansions for determining the troops that are attracted to high-level fighters.

"When It Gets Hit, It Gets Hurt", #73. The only crit system I've ever liked for D&D-type games.

"The Mystic College", #123. Some notes on institutions for magic-users, instead of a simple tower.

"Weathering the Storms", #137. Simple tables for random weather.

"Treasures of the Wilds", #137. The values of various animal parts.

"What's for Lunch?", #137. A hunting system.

"Weapons Wear Out, Skills Don't", #65. An alternate proficiency system.

"The Natural Order", #122. More druid spells.

"A Capital Idea", #113. Businesses for PCs to run.

"Clout for Clerics", #113. Expanded rules for running clerical domains.

"The Role of Nature", #108. How to make use of weather.

"Sticks, Stones, and Bones", #97. Guidelines for nonstandard weapon use.

"Short Hops and Big Drops", #93. Ideas for setting limits on jumping for characters.

AD&D 1E Adventures And Stuff

So, WotC is reprinting the 1st edition of AD&D. That's pretty cool, but what do you do with it? Adventures are very helpful to the Referee, and there exists a list of adventures for AD&D 1E that are in print. You can see that list, with links, here. You should get the word on this list to everyone you know. They'll thank you. Even if they aren't a gamer. Don't bother linking back to me, unless you really, really want to (but if you want to link back to me that much, you should do it for something that I actually did, not a pointer).

Um, I found a place that sells pads of 17"x22" graph paper, from 4 squares/inch to 10 squares/inch. A pad of 50 sheets is less than $20, a pad of 100 less than $35. They have all sorts of other useful tools, too, like mechanical pencils and other sizes of graph paper, and they ship by UPS. (One downside: they require orders of a minimum $20 before shipping.) Check 'em out.

Hopefully, I'll have some actual content soon. I've been working on some templates for the GURPS Greyhawk project, which I should be putting up in the next couple of days.