Heave To And Prepare To Be Boarded!

While that is also my favorite pirate pick-up line, this post is about pointing out the latest offering from The Oatmeal.

More specifically, this is an exhortation to WotC/Hasbro to learn from it. Learn from it, or heave to. Because that's what artificially limiting access will lead to every time. The world has changed. You don't get to play the game that way anymore.

That is to say, we want to pay you money. We want the money in our pockets or bank accounts or credit unions to transfer into your bank account in exchange for the things we want. We think that such an exchange is fair for those things, and we truly believe that it encourages you to make more of the things that we want. When you don't let us give you money, though, we will find a way to get the things we want, and we will give the money to the people who will make that happen. That isn't a threat, it is a description of what is going on right now, all over the world. If you want that money, you have to make the things we want available to us. Welcome to the 21st century.

Just Checking In

I've been quiet here, and most places on the internet, for a little bit now. I figured that it would be worth my time to make a quick check-in.

I've been re-reading AD&D, with an eye toward running it later this year. I'm planning on using the Black Blood of the Earth setting that I mentioned previously. That will be pretty much the extent of the wider worldbuilding that I'm going to do to start with (I'm also going to set up a religious system based on the "Elemental Gods" article in Dragon #77). The rest will be created in play. I'm working up a plan of a small town of about 2000 people where the players will start. They'll have information about a secret entrance in the sewers that leads to a mysterious tunnel where their informant found a few gold coins, but got scared before exploring much further. 0-levels, amirite? I'll have a couple of small modifications to the rules (notably, completely revamping Bards based on Dragon #56, psionics based on Dragon #78, unarmed combat from Unearthed Arcana, level training, and removing gender-based stat limits), but largely will use the rules straight (even hated things like weapon vs. armor type or racial level limits, and I'll have some sort of level training).

I've also been reading Battlesystem, in part because I'm intending that it will be the mass combat system I will use (still deciding between 1st and 2nd edition, but leaning toward 1st).

Other than that, though, I've been doing very little. I haven't even been keeping up with my reading outside of gaming. How are you doing?

Miniatures Companies: A Request To You Readers

I am wanting to make a list here (for my use and yours) of companies which currently exist and which make miniatures suitable for fantasy gaming. I would prefer to avoid companies which traffic exclusively in the "heroic" style (super-buff warriors with spiky bits and whatnot) or companies that produce miniatures entirely for their own game settings (Games Workshop and Privateer, I'm looking at you). Mostly, I'm interested in classic fantasy figure styles, historical medieval and ancients, and so forth. Pig-faced orcs! Stuff from the old Grenadier and Ral Partha lines! That sort of thing. (I mean, it doesn't have to be specifically pig-faced orcs, or classic figure lines. Just in that style.)

If you can, include a link to the company's website or an address to write to them if they don't have a web presence (as if that would happen).

Edit to add: Right on schedule, ckutalik over at Hill Cantons posted about plastic minis.

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.

Rock And Rules

If you don't already hang on Jeff Rients's every word (and why don't you?), you owe it to yourself to get on over and read the secret history of that great band, Dungeons & Dragons. Surgeon of the Underworld was truly a great album.

More On Type V

Apparently, over on the "DnDNext" boards on the WotC website, there is a poll on what people want from the new edition. Crazy ideas like "healing surges" and "encounter powers" are winning in those polls, from what I hear. That's neat, but I wonder how WotC expected any other result on boards that have been colonized by 4E as a result of the marketing strategy that Hasbro/WotC has been pursuing.

So, if these polls are taken seriously at all, what we'll end up seeing is just another 4E. If that's a sound marketing move, then why is WotC even embarking in this direction in the first place? If D&D 5E looks like just another iteration of "computer rpg on the tabletop", why would they expect that to go over any better than 4E did? On the one hand, that should make Paizo happy (Pathfinder wouldn't lose any business that way), but on the other hand, WotC wouldn't regain any market share. On the gripping hand, there's OSRIC, Swords & Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord, Lamentations of the Flame Princess: Weird Fantasy Roleplaying, and so on, so who cares what happens with WotC? I mean, I'd like to have "D&D" back as a name, but ultimately names are just what we call things, not the things themselves.

I've been thinking about this matter, and here's still what I want from WotC that they haven't already given us: a reprint of Chainmail, the White Box, and the four supplements. That's it. They're already giving us reprints of 1E, now give us 0E.

Not that WotC is going to listen to a little blog like this one.

Pimping Ponies

The great blogger Erin Palette has written a short set of rules (6 pages), based on the Unknown Armies system and titled Unknown Ponies: Failure Is Awesome, for games set in the background of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. You know that you want to look.

Experiment

So, I've been persuaded that the spam problem is already contained at the Blogger level. As a result, I've shut off word verification here. If spam becomes a problem, I'll turn it back on, but judging by the reported experiences of others, that shouldn't be necessary.

House Rules At The End Of Time

A game that I am nearly prepared to run, Terra Ultima is a science-fantasy setting, with some mild changes from the basic Swords & Wizardry: Whitebox rules. Here are most of them.

Character Creation

Stats are rolled 3d6 in order. Additional stat: Social Standing.

Only three classes are available for Humans: Fighting Man, Magic User, and Rogue Magic User. Levels above 10 require 2X the number of experience points as the previous level, but humans have no limits. Rogue Magic Users use the Cleric experience chart, but gain spells as per the Rogue in Savage Swords of Athanor.

Skills are taken from Savage Swords of Athanor, as well. Choose one from Group I or two from Group II. Other skills may be available, ask the Referee (specifically, any Secondary Skill listed in the 1E DMG is probably available as a Group II skill, except Trader).

The races available, other than Humans, include Dwarves (who may choose between two classes, Fighting Man - limited to level 6 - and Crafter, a special class limited to level 8), or Elves (who must choose between Fighting Man and Magic User at moonrise each day, limited to level 4 in the former and level 8 in the latter).

Hit dice are rolled at each new level gained, with a minimum number of hit points equal to those previously held. In addition, at first level, take the higher of 1 hit die for "normal man/dwarf" status or the hit dice of first level (so that a human Magic User or dwarven Crafter would roll 2d6, taking the higher of the two, or a human or dwarven Fighting Man would roll 1d6 and 1d6+1, taking the higher result), while elves roll 1d6 for 1st level Magic User and 1d6+1 for 1st level Fighting Man, taking the higher of the two.

Magic Users start with a free spell book containing Read Magic and three other spells chosen randomly. Magic Users and Rogue Magic Users may cast any spell from a list that includes spells from both the Magic User and Cleric lists in the Whitebox rules (at first level, this includes all of those on the Magic User list (except Light, but read further), plus Cure Light Wounds, Light (Dark), and Purify (Putrify) Food and Drink).

Equipment


Use the Encumbrance by Stone rules.

Money is changed considerably. Most coins are silver pennies or copper farthings. A farthing is valued at one-fourth of a penny. A gold crown weighs as much as five pennies or farthings, and is valued at 240 pennies. 500 pennies or farthings can be carried per bundle, 2500 per stone weight (as noted, a crown coin weighs as much as five pennies or farthings). Starting money is Social Standing x10 pennies. Experience points for treasure are 1 xp per penny.

The equipment cost list will be different than that in Whitebox. It will include some science fantasy items taken from Terminal Space. Energy cells will exist and be expensive, however, and there is no space travel.

Magic


Some more changes from the spell lists include Raise Dead being a 6th level spell, and Astral Spell and Restoration (from the Core Rules) being 6th level spells. Otherwise, all spells in the Whitebox rules exist, at the earliest level they appear (except Quest, which is a 6th level spell, and Commune, which does not exist - use Contact Other Plane instead, and use the version of that spell in the Core Rules since the Whitebox one doesn't make any sense at all). If there is a Magic User and Cleric version of the same spell, then the Magic User version takes precedence (except in the case of Light).

Combat

Mounted men are -2 to be hit by footmen; +2 to hit footmen; and +4 to hit in the initial charging round. Footmen attacking mounted roll 1d6: 1-3 attack mount, 4-6 attack rider (mounted attacking mounted may choose which to attack).

Charge-round sequence: (1) mount & rider move to lance range, delivering initial attack; (2) mount continues move to first target or one behind it, delivering one hoof/trample/smashing attack; (3) mount & rider continue balance of movement if way is clear.

(I don't recall where I got that from.)

Death and Dismemberment.

Fighting Men (only) with shields can attempt to take blows on their shield. If attempted, roll a save (after damage is rolled), modified for the shield's magic bonuses. Success avoids all damage from one attack, but shatters the shield, making it useless. Failure has no effect. Magic shields mark one tally on a successful save instead; when tallies exceed the magic bonus, then they shatter. Against magic attacks and breath weapons, normal shields cannot be used in this way, but a magic shield can be sacrificed automatically (given a tally mark, don't roll to save) for an automatic save against the attack. (This is a variation of Shields Shall Be Splintered!)

(Additional edit, 27 January 2012): Fighting Men with shields parry normal missile weapons as above, but the shield does not shatter when so used.

Unarmed combat will be handled using rules similar to System I from Unearthed Arcana (1E).

Morale will be taken directly from the rules in the D&D Rules Cyclopedia.

A character may fight with a second weapon in his off-hand. This gives a +1 to hit for the character's attack (or attacks, for a Fighting Man of 2nd or higher level attacking 1HD opponents).

Missile weapons are given a range 1/2 that listed (for those in Whitebox; Terminal Space weapons exchange meters for feet, then halve, except for Rifles which have a range of 125 ft). They attack at normal odds at up to Short Range (x1), at -2 at up to Medium Range (x2), or at -5 at up to Long Range (x4).

I Imagine That They Said "Boo-Yah!" When Posting The Press Release

I can hardly keep up with the news coming out of WotC lately. It's almost as though they actually decided to listen to their audience this time (yes, those 4E scars run deep).

For the one person out there who hasn't heard yet, but also happens to read this blog (yeah, I doubt that person exists, too), not only have WotC announced a new edition of D&D which, they claim, will be usable by anyone regardless of whether they prefer older or newer styles of gaming, but they have also announced a new printing of 1E AD&D's three core books (PH, MM, and DMG). The new printing will be priced in the same range as the originals (adjusted for inflation, of course), and the proceeds will also help support the Gygax Memorial Fund. The only questionable thing is that they plan to use all-new cover artwork - but the interiors of the books will be using the original art.

Now if they'd only release a new printing of the White Box (and maybe the four supplements).

Gah! Not More Inspiration…

So, I was reading a blog on nongaming matters (yeah, I know), and I ran across some ideas for what may be another neat sword & sorcery background. OK, it's really a sort of exaggerated look at the world around us, but it's specifically worded in ways to emphasize the, as the blog author puts it, pulp fantasy nature of the world we find ourselves in. Check these out (from here):

• We live in a world dominated by a vast, slowly decaying empire that gets quite literally superhuman powers by feeding on what we may as well call the blood of the Earth;
• That empire is ruled by a decadent aristocracy that holds court in soaring towers and bolsters its crumbling authority by conjuring vast amounts of wealth out of thin air;
• Backing the aristocracy is a caste of corrupt sorcerers whose incantations, projected into every home through the power of the blood of the Earth, keep the populace disorganized, deluded and passive;
• Entire provinces of the empire are ravaged by droughts, storms, and other disasters caused by the misuse of the Earth’s blood, while prophecies from the past warn of much worse to come;
• Meanwhile, far from the centers of power, the members of a scattered fellowship struggle to find and learn the forgotten lore of an earlier time, which might just hold the secret of survival...

and

Who is the hero or the heroine who will turn the pages of the long-lost Gaianomicon, use its forgotten lore to forge a wand of power out of the rays of the Sun, shatter the deceptive spells of the lords of High Finance, and rise up amidst the wreckage of a dying empire to become one of the seedbearers of an age that is not yet born?

It would make a good counterpoint, I think, to my Terra Ultima setting. Maybe I'll have to run two different games.

Initial thoughts: magic as technology (needs a magic item creation system); alternate magic system using the black blood of the Earth (maybe similar to defiler magic from Dark Sun?) which makes magic items easier to make, and gives more power to the user than the normal magic system, though not overwhelmingly so; alchemical overlords transforming the black blood of the Earth into gold; and so on.

Balance? We Don't Need No Stinking Balance!

One of the things that killed WotC D&D, in my opinion, is the emphasis on "balance". As in, every encounter should be "balanced" to the characters in the game. These metagaming considerations do make for an interesting competitive game, so I won't denigrate that consideration on that basis.

The thing is, though, that adventure games ("role-playing games") are not competitive games.

Now, now, I can hear some people out there already saying that there's been a long tradition of the adversarial DM whose every move was dedicated toward fiendish new ways to kill characters. I'd like to put that rumor to rest and note that it is bullshit (although not unadulterated bullshit, as I'll discuss in a moment), based on hyperbolic writing by some players who wanted to glorify their own exploits. "I got my character to 10th level, even though we had a DM who killed characters with a fiendish glee!" sounds a heck of a lot better than "My character got to 18th level under a Monty Haul DM." Now, when those writers published all of that, some new DMs read it and thought to themselves, "Oh, I guess that I should be playing against the PCs". And so a cycle of abuse was created.

No, what those fiendish DMs were really doing was something else. They were providing challenges to the players, not to the characters. One of the neat things about tabletop adventure games that will be a long time coming with computer versions is that the players can try anything. At all. And, if the designer didn't think of it, they can still try it and potentially succeed. This is an amazing innovation, derived from miniatures wargaming. See, back in the day, miniatures wargaming rules were, uh, a little sketchy. They were designed to cover some basic interactions, but beyond issues like casualties, movement, and morale, they didn't really cover strange situations. In a "friendly" game, the players would work out something between them that would seem to cover the situation, and in a tournament or otherwise competitive game, they'd enlist the aid of a neutral referee to the same end.

Now, this idea developed in early adventure gaming into the idea of the DM, who would design the scenario in which the players would manipulate their single figures (either explicitly, on the table, or implicitly, in imagination), and would also act as an impartial referee, ruling on the outcome of unusual actions (those outside of casualty infliction, movement, or the other issues covered under the rules). The DM would design situations that were interesting, that had no obvious solution (at times, she might even design a situation which had no predesigned solution), and so were challenging to the players. Success, in such a case, is not based entirely on the numbers on the character sheet, but on the skill of the player himself.

In a literary example (which I keep going to, since it is both iconic and therefore well-known, and also philosophically appropriate), Bilbo missed out on the xp for killing Smaug. Bard got those. But the Arkenstone was worth more xp , anyway. And even if Bilbo had worked himself up to 4th level and so hit his level limit, the true value of the Arkenstone was revealed in the way that he leveraged that item into a situation of a peacefully-coexisting dwarven keep Under the Mountain and Laketown. He made a difference in the world, and returned home with enough treasure to ensure his comfort to the end of his days. He didn't need a "balanced" encounter with Smaug. He used his ingenuity to set up a situation in which Smaug was defeated, despite the imbalance of the encounter.

What were his (theoretical) player's "victory conditions"? Not to level up, that's for sure. Not to gain untold amounts of wealth and power. They were to do what he did, I'd guess: make a permanent mark on the campaign world that the player could point to and say, "I had a major hand in that situation being as good as it is. And here is how it happened…" That's how stories come out of gaming, not by being scripted into the game, but by being descriptions of the game.

The Topic Du Jour

OK, so what I want out of the 5th (or 15th, depending on how you count it*) published version of D&D is pretty much summed up by Jeff Rients. (If you agree with his open letter, link to it on your blog or wherever, to boost the Google ranking.)

And that's pretty much all I have to say about something that I haven't seen yet.


*And here's how I count it:

1: 0E: The White Box with its three LBBs
2: 0.5E: The supplements to 0E
3: Holmes D&D
4: 1E: AD&D
5: B/X D&D
6: BECMI D&D
7: 1.5E: Unearthed Arcana
8: 2E: AD&D 2E
9: Rules Cyclopedia D&D (though changes from BECMI were minimal, they did exist, notably in the handling of Immortal level characters)
10: 2.5E: Player's Options books
11: 3E: WotC 3E
12: 3.5E: WotC 3.5E
13: 4E: WotC 4E
14: 4.5E: WotC D&D Essentials (thanks to Arkhein for pointing this out to my 4E-deficient brain)
15: alleged WotC 5E

Demihuman Level Limits?

There's some discussion out there in the OSR blogosphere about demihuman level limits. Some people, as has always been the case, hate them and refuse to use them. Others think that they are a necessary part of the game, and useful to emphasize the humanocentric nature of the sort of swords & sorcery fantasy that is the implied subject of most games with levels. Certainly, the increased numbers of players with demihuman characters in modern D&D games would seem to indicate that there should be some sort of factor to discourage their play. The question is, should that factor be something so seemingly metagame-y as level limits.

It's important, I think, to figure out just what character levels and experience points represent in the game. That is, what are they, besides a game convenience? The normal idea is that levels represent a level of skill and training. This is supported by the idea of training for level increases in the 1E DMG. However, it is countered by looking at what events garner experience points, and by examining some other issues. For instance, a 1st-level Fighting Man is not described as being in training: he is called a "Veteran" in the editions which used level titles. That is, he is someone who has already learned the techniques of his craft and had occasion to apply them in practice. He is a veteran, not a tyro. Similarly, as Talysman points out, the Magic User and the Cleric imply that the starting character has learned what he can from his instructors. And experience points are not given for training, or even for practicing skills. They are given for acquiring treasure and destroying (or defeating, in some formulations) foes.

So, why would a character have experience points in exchange for picking up some coins or for putting a sword through the heart of a goblin? I think that the answer is to be found in another game, Pendragon. In that game, an analogous quantity called Glory is the goal of the players. Glory is acquired for similar (though not identical) reasons as experience points. The amount of Glory gained represents the reputation, temporal power, and spiritual accomplishment of the character. Similarly, experience points (and therefore levels) seem to represent the success and worldly power of the character. That is, it is a concept very similar to the Polynesian, specifically Maori, concept of mana (not to be confused with the appropriation of that term in gaming to mean, merely, "magic points"; as an aside, I'm curious to know where the earliest use of the term in that capacity occurred). That is, it is authority and luck and reputation and power and confidence (both self- and that of others).

Now, given that, it becomes more obvious as to why demihumans, in a humanocentric, sword & sorcery world, have level limits. As Talysman notes, elves and dwarves and halflings are all seen as secondary to human concerns. Not many humans, in such worlds, will subject themselves to even elven kings, much less dwarven or (ha!) hobbit ones. Humans are the measure of all things in such worlds, and it is only they who can reach the highest realms of authority and power, not only in the realm of temporal power and politics, but in the more mystic worlds of arcane and clerical magic. This is further borne out by the later Thief class, which did not limit levels of demihumans, but which is the most mundane class of them all, with little interest in the rarefied realms of political, arcane, or spiritual power.

So, level limits seem important for both metagame reasons (discouraging the use of demihuman characters without artificial "balancing") and for reasons of simulation within the context of the material. It's only those games which didn't share that context that made the limits nonsensical (but, then, there are many other aspects of the rules which wouldn't then fit into those games). This is interesting to consider in context of the WRG Ancients RPG I am working on.

Why GURPS Greyhawk?

I was thinking about the matter of converting from one system to another. It's true that I like GURPS, but I also like D&D. So why convert Greyhawk, already well-established as a D&D property, with D&D stats ready and waiting, into GURPS, which is a lot of effort? I have a number of reasons, some of which I want to mention here.

First, there's the matter of tone. D&D has a tendency toward a particular type of heroic, "cinematic" play that follows certain narrative conventions. GURPS, on the other hand, works toward a different style, even when it is used with "cinematic" optional rules. Think of it as the difference between, on the one hand, Robert E. Howard, and J.R.R. Tolkien on the other. That's not to say that either author represents either rule set, only that there is clearly a difference in tone.

Second, by playing with the stat blocks, I hope to illuminate the ways in which each rule set abstracts certain aspects of the fictional reality they represent. That is, I can look at the factors which make up "hit points" in D&D, but are detailed out in GURPS. Similarly, social structures are abstracted into specific modifiers in GURPS, but are dealt with more subtly in D&D, mainly through adjudication. Mostly, though, I'm trying to work out what a "level" is, what "hit points" are, and so on in D&D. By doing so, I hope to improve my D&D games.

Next, sometimes it's easier to get a game together if it has a particular premise. The idea of GURPS Greyhawk is just plain interesting to some people, and should gather an actual gaming group. I would like that, actually, though I'm pretty sure that my next face-to-face group is going to focus on Swords & Wizardy: Whitebox.

Also, with luck, I'll get some of you commenting on the entries, and providing critiques and suggestions for various matters.

Finally, one of the things about GURPS (or any rule set really, but GURPS specifically) is that it helps to practice using its rules in various ways. This is sometimes called "system mastery", and is useful when running just about any game, not to mention when playing some of them. By working out conversions (and the project as I conceive it is extensive - I hope to eventually provide a stat block for at least every entry on every encounter table in the Greyhawk boxed set and the DMG, for instance), I get to practice using GURPS, which is good for my purposes.

Oh, yeah. And why Greyhawk, specifically? That's easy. Greyhawk was the first fantasy game world I ever read about. I owned the folio edition (the original one I owned has since been destroyed, but I have replaced it, as well as getting a copy of the boxed set). So, it's pretty much nostalgia. However, there are aspects of the Flanaess that are especially interesting to me, such as the general atmosphere of medieval Europe combined with fantasy elements in a particular way. Greyhawk is prototypical of fantasy gaming worlds, and has only rarely been equaled.

In The Deep Midwinter

So, today has me thinking about holidays and calendars and such. Obviously. And, since I'm already thinking about Greyhawk and Oerth, it's natural that my thoughts turn to the festivals of that world. Midwinter, on Oerth, is celebrated with a festival called Needfest. Looking at this festival (and the others) brings into focus one of the areas where the boxed set directly contradicts the folio. In the folio, the year was 360 days long, with each of the four festivals taking up 6 days. This was changed in the boxed set in response to the article on weather in the World of Greyhawk, where the article's author noted that a year of 364 days, with full seven-day festivals, made the two moons of Oerth move more simply. I think that I will adopt this solution, making this the only place in which I am allowing the boxed set to override the folio.

So, how would the peoples of Oerth celebrate Needfest? Well, first we'll note that the phases of the moons are fixed for the winter solstice, with Luna always being New and Celene being Full. In fact, the characteristic of all four festivals during the year is that Celene, the "Handmaiden", will be Full in the middle of the festival week. This does mean that some lycanthropes will be out wandering during every festival, so the concepts from our world of the Wild Hunt will likely have some sway in how these festivals are celebrated by many of the peoples of Oerth. We can, therefore, expect to see processions of bands of masked or costumed youths in furs wandering about, providing music of some sort (percussive, mainly, such as drums and large bells, plus singing), and demanding food and drink at the houses to which they come (like forceful carolers, perhaps). Those who give freely will get a blessing, while those who are stingy will be tormented by the wandering bands in some fashion (ranging from minor vandalism and theft to outright attacks and magical curses). Bright decorations of evergreen boughs and colorful ribbons will be placed all around settlements and outlying farmsteads. Candles and bonfires will be lit through the night (occasionally leading to tragedies, but that's the accepted price for the midwinter festivities). Songs extolling the virtues of the sun will be sung, food eaten, and drinks drunk.

Those who follow Pholtus of the Blinding Light take a dim (ha!) view of these pagan superstitions, of course, and focus almost entirely on the unconquerable, ever-returning sun without reference to the unholy, demonic lycanthrope scourge who follow the whims of the inconstant moons. St. Cuthbert's followers, on the other hand, have been slowly transforming the rites into a celebration of the wisdom of Cuthbert, adopting and reimagining the pagan celebrations of the people as celebrations of the birth of the god, all while phasing out the costumed begging/thuggery. Perhaps they encourage the caroling, however, and the giving of those alms to carolers.

The Baklunish people don't seem to have the same celebrations of midwinter. Lacking information about their calendar, I can't say for certain what goes on in the far Northwest. I'll think about it, and if I ever have any players go up there, we may find out.

Elves In GURPS Greyhawk, Part I

[This template has been edited, as I realized that I want to fully cover the AD&D abilities.]


[And more edits, 13 Jan 2012]

After considering the abilities of Elves in AD&D, and comparing those abilities to GURPS equivalents, I've arrived at a template which should come close to depicting that fantasy race in similar terms. I have had to give up my dream of a "near-zero point" template for the elven race (though the relatively high point cost should compensate for the loss of "level limits" from AD&D), and I still have to work out the various elven varieties. This template should cover most of the surface elves (at least those from the Player's Handbook), however.

Elf
45 points


Attribute Modifiers: DX+1 [20]; HT-1 [-10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per+1 [5].
Advantages: Extended Lifespan 4 [8]; Infravision [10]; Resistant (Sleep and Charm Effects*, +8 to resist) [5]; Silence 1 [5].
Disadvantages: Intolerance (Humanoids) [-5]; Sense of Duty (Good People**) [-15].
Racially Learned Skills: Bow (A) DX-1 [1]-10; Broadsword (A) DX-1 [1]-10.
Languages: Elvish (Native) [0]; Gnomish (Accented) [4]; Halflingish (Accented) [4]; Goblinish (Broken) [2]; Hobgoblinish (Broken) [2]; Orcish (Broken) [2]; Gnollish (Broken) [2]; Common (Accented) [4]
Features: Figure Height and Weight as if ST were 2 points lower.

*Includes the spells Sleep, Mass Sleep, Loyalty, Charm, and Enslave. Other effects can be resisted at the GM's discretion.

**Considered to be those who are defined as Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic Good in the Greyhawk material. The Player and the Referee will have to work out how to handle cases of Humanoids who can be considered as being of those alignments, but I'd consider the Sense of Duty to outweigh the Intolerance.

Verdant, Arcadia

In the Fantasy West, there is a town called Verdant. Located in Arcadia County, Verdant is not a large town. In fact, it's hardly more than a General Store, a Hotel and Livery Stable, a pair of Temples (one dedicated to Valentina, and one to Landry), and a Saloon, with a few houses.

The General Store is the centerpiece of the town, being the place that farmers, miners, and ranchers from the surrounding County come to trade for goods they need and can't produce themselves. Run by a man named Afala Corbits and his family, the store is usually just called "Afala's".

The hotel and livery stable is the business of the Laskin family. The accounts and records are kept by Kulino Laskin, the patriarch of the family, though he is starting to give some of those responsibilities to his eldest son, Jerbart, who is otherwise involved with keeping the stables running. Kulino's wife, Latats, runs the kitchen. The children do the rest of the work, along with a few people hired from the farming families of the County. Of an evening, the rowdy youths of Verdant can often be found at the stables, gambling or fighting under the sullen eye of Jerbart.

The saloon is both the center of government for the town and County, and also the center of the roughest elements. Judge Gelorman Wilkar spends his days playing cards in the bar, ruling on cases that are brought to him in between hands. Sheriff Tarbot Numtar can usually be found at the table, along with whichever of the ranchers and farmholders happen to be in town that day.

In the Temple of Valentina, Miss Nekoma, the Holy Dove of Valentina, and her acolytes hold services to the goddess of love. For a donation to the goddess, the acolytes might take a petitioner upstairs for private worship. Judge Wilkar and Sheriff Numtar are fine with the temple being around, but always put the interests of the ranchers, miners, and farmers ahead of those of Miss Nekoma and her acolytes.

Landry's Temple is next to the saloon, and is the province of Shepherd Soduk Kalama. The storm god's pews are generally full each week, with families from the nearest farms, and occasionally even ranchers and miners, coming to listen to the philosophical orations of the Shepherd. The rest of the time, Shepherd Kalama provides counsel for those who are troubled and organizes aid for those in need.

Recently, a man has come to town. No one knows where he comes from, or what he has done. All they know is his name, Palan Tobuk, and that he drinks alone in the saloon. He never takes off his pistol or his hat with others around, and has rarely been seen without his black duster.

Religion In GURPS Greyhawk

Back when the original folio edition of the World of Greyhawk was released, there was little discussion of religion in Oerth. In fact, despite several of the leaders of various areas being defined as Clerics, there is no mention of particular deities or religions at any point (Iuz excepted, but he's not called a god or even a demon in the folio's Gazetteer, as well as Zagig, similarly not termed a god or demigod at this point in time). This leaves me wide open as to defining the religions of Oerth. I want to include St. Cuthbert of the Cudgel and Pholtus of the Blinding Light, as these two are known to have been the original Lawful gods of Gygax's campaign. There are a few others implied, for which I will dip into the boxed set's descriptions for ideas, but will not feel bound to them.

First, I want to note that there's a significant difference in reality between monotheist and polytheist religions. These fundamental differences result in very different ways of approaching the world. To work with this idea, I want to limit some of the ways that each religion is portrayed in game terms. Only monotheist religions will have some of the abilities we usually think of as "clerical", such as undead turning or miraculous prayer. Polytheist religions will more closely resemble traditional gaming magic. So, the advantages True Faith, Blessed, and Divine Favor (from GURPS Powers: Divine Favor) will be the basis of the monotheist clerics' magical abilities, while the abilities of polytheist "clerics" will be simply the basic magic system. In the case of Druids, the reorganization of the basic magic system as the "Tree Magic" system from GURPS Thaumatology will be used. OK, that gets most of the game-specific material out of the way, so let's discuss the religious landscape of the Flanaess.

The monotheist religions are those of St. Cuthbert and Pholtus, certainly, but I am also inclined to present the religion of the far Northwest (Ekbir, Zeif, and so on) as monotheistic, but I'll come back to that. My general impression is that Pholtus is the religion of most of the Flanaess. Edit to add: Pholtus is mainly concentrated around the Great Kingdom, the Pale, Nyrond, Urnst, and so forth. End edit. St. Cuthbert, on the other hand, is the god followed by those in the central Flanaess, such as Greyhawk and Verbobonc, Furyondy and Veluna. I'd say that his worship extends into the area of Keoland and surrounding areas. My impression is that the religion of Pholtus is more inflexible and intolerant than St. Cuthbert's, but the two religions are also specifically active rivals for worshipers. St. Cuthbert is not as intolerant of the polytheists around, but Pholtus is actively trying to eliminate them and any other religion as heretics.

The Baklunish nations in the far Northwest, on the other hand, have been portrayed as polytheist since the boxed set. However, their implied culture is based on one of the most monotheist cultures in real-world history, the Islamic Arabs. The boxed set lists several gods as being Baklunish in origin: Istus (the Lady of Fate), Geshtai (goddess of lakes, rivers, and wells), Xan Yae (goddess of twilight, shadows, and such), and Zuoken (god of physical and mental mastery). I want to incorporate those into the world, so I will imagine that Istus is the True God of the Bakluni. The others will be Archangels fulfilling the Will of the Lady of Fate. There will be other Archangels, but I won't worry about those until I need them. The Bakluni will believe that other monotheist gods are merely different ways of envisioning the True God, Istus, but that polytheists are deluded demon-worshipers. Istus's worship extends into Ket and the areas of the Tiger and Wolf Nomads.

There are three major polytheist religions: Oeridian, Flan, and Suloise. The Oeridians are the religion that Pholtus came from, and they perceive Him as one god among many. The monotheist Pholtus-followers are particularly aggressive about their "backward, demon-worshiping" cousins. Their main gods include Zilchus, the god of power and influence, and Procan, the god of the oceans. There are several other gods, dedicated to aspects of nature in the main, but also notably Heironeous, the god of justice and chivalry, Delleb, the god of the intellect, and Hextor, the evil god of war and discord. Oeridian "clerics" are not particularly distinguishable from magic users, and learn spells as normal. Oeridian religion is scattered in the area of the Great Kingdom (though oppressed by Pholtus monotheism), the Shield Lands and the Bandit Kingdoms, and the areas of Keoland and the surrounding areas.

The Suloise barbarians of the Northeastern peninsula are listed in the boxed set as having three major gods: Kord, god of sports and brawling, Lendor, god of time and tedium, and Wee Jas, goddess of magic and death. Kord is probably their most important god. Their clerics are also very much like traditional magic users. Other areas where Suloise gods hold sway include Hepmonaland and the Amedio Jungle, Keoland and the surrounding areas (mixing with the Oeridian temples in a harmonious way), and the Scarlet Brotherhood's peninsula. In addition, they can be found pretty well represented in the central Flanaess alongside St. Cuthbert's chapels.

Flan religion is almost certainly the Druidic religion of Oerth. The boxed set lists four gods as the major ones of the Flan pantheon. They are Beory, the Oerth Mother, Nerull, god of death, Pelor, god of the sun, and Rao, god of peace and serenity. Iuz is part of this pantheon, and is the incarnate god of oppression, deceit, and pain. Their clerics will use the Tree Magic version of the basic magic system. I may rename the 18 oghams of that system with symbols from the "Glossary of Portentous Runes and Glyphs" of the Gazetteer, but that's pretty low priority. These Druids can be found throughout the Flanaess, but are especially common in Tenh and the Barrens.

So, if polytheist clerics are "merely" magic users by another name, why do they have temples and shrines? Like wizard towers, shrines and temples give a place for priests to live and receive visitors and petitioners. In addition, they give a place for common worship to occur. This has few game system effects, being mainly the way that communities bond and improve their communal order. However, using the GURPS magic system, they can also serve as the location of Ceremonial Magic casting for major spells like Bless Plants.

There are other gods listed in the boxed set as "Common", such as Boccob, Incabulos, Cyndor, Bleredd, Ehlonna, Joramy, Lirr, Myrhiss, Olidammara, Ralishaz, Tritherion, and Zagyg. I'm going to figure that these are, like Zagyg/Zagig, powerful entities similar to the major demons or the powerful modrons or else local gods (so that Ehlonna, for instance, is a goddess whose worship is found in the Gnarley Forest, the Welkwood, and the Suss Forest only). Generally speaking, in fact, these gods are found in specific areas (Iuz in his own land, Zagig mainly in Greyhawk, and so on).

Top Secret And Old School Resolution

One of the insights of the OSR has been the relationship between player and character, specifically as it relates to "skills" and similar systems. The idea is that the player should be able to simply describe what the character is doing, and the Referee will adjudicate the outcome based on that description. So, where a modern player might roll a character's "search" skill, the old school player would describe how the character is searching and where. This is all fine until it comes to technical skills, especially modern ones such as piloting aircraft or computer programming, where the player will either might not have any particular skill in the field or else the Referee might lack any knowledge of how that skill is employed in reality.

Top Secret approaches this situation in three different, but related, ways. The first is the easiest, and is related to the rolled abilities of the character. Things like deactivating alarms and traps, fighting, or charming a contact are covered by these. The player still describes, at least in general (but specific details are helpful, too), how the character is going about it, but the resolution is heavily influenced by the abilities of the character. Next is also easy, and those are "Areas Of Knowledge", or "AOKs". These are the most like traditional gaming skills, and cover abilities like Accounting or Chemistry. They are rated in percentages (though they can go above 100), which can be rolled against directly, or a minimum level set for success.

So far, though, we haven't seen anything about flying aircraft or forging documents (those are not covered under AOKs). Thus, in Dragon magazine and later in the Top Secret Companion, a system of "College Courses" was set out, in which the character would spend a certain amount of money and time and gain a new ability. This was not perfectly integrated, as the legacy systems of such things as martial arts (defined in the original game by the level of "Military Science/Weaponry" or "Physical Education" AOKs) were joined by the College Course system (in which one could learn various martial arts by taking a course). The idea seems to have been that someone with a lower level of Military Science/Weaponry or Physical Education could still learn the particulars of fighting with Judo, Martial Arts, Boxing, or Wrestling. Oddly, Knife Fighting and Swordplay are treated differently in the College Course system, which is something I need to think about in writing the TS retroclone. In any case, the course would also give specific increases to various AOKs or even abilities, and a modest bonus of Experience Points (though members of the Technical Bureau got quite a bit more). Here's an example of a College Course:

Scuba Diving

Cost: $8000
Time: 4 weeks
Prerequisite: Physical Strength 50+, Willpower 75+.
Areas of Specialization: Closed circuit systems, Semi-closed-circuit demand-type scuba systems.
Ability Acquired: Using semi-closed or open-circuit scuba diving equipment, the agent can dive to a maximum depth equal to the next highest fitness rating. For example, a weakling could dive to 185 feet, an average agent could dive to 285 feet, and strong and super agents could dive to depths of 380 and 435 feet, respectively. An agent can swim a distance of 5001-6000 (5000 + (1-100)x(1-10)) feet safely 85% of the time, even at the maximum depth. An agent using a closed-circuit system may dive to a depth of only 30 feet or less for 30 minutes or less. An agent can hold his breath for a number of seconds equal to his Willpower value. Increase Physical Strength and Willpower each + (1-10).
Areas of Knowledge increase: Military Science and Physical Education each + (1-10).
Credit: 60 Experience Points.

Now, there are some things in there which were not well-defined in the original game, such as the note that the agent would be safe "85% of the time" (there's no indication of what happens if that chance is failed; my guess is that it was intended as a saving throw that would automatically prevent any complications that the Referee might have considered throwing the agent's way). There are some abilities gained through College Courses, though, which seem to imply that the ability can't be performed at all by someone who hasn't taken the Course, such as piloting a space shuttle. In addition, there are many College Courses implied which were not delineated in the original material.

This is similar to the skill systems of other games in many ways, but it assumes that the player can use his knowledge to perform various actions that would be covered by skills in some modern games. For instance, the searching example I discussed above. In addition, there's a saving throw against the player's mistakes in the character's abilities, so that, for instance, a player who didn't have the character look in the right place for a particular useful object could be given a roll against the Perception tertiary trait to find it anyway. Alternately, the Referee could simply set a minimum Perception to find the item, with that coming into play if the player failed to properly direct the character.

Solo Gaming And The Fantasy West

So, lately I haven't had a gaming group. There are a couple of ways I could alleviate that. One is Google+ and Constantcon. Another is to find a place and run a game myself. I do plan on doing both of those (I'll play in someone's Constantcon game sooner or later, and I will run a megadungeon-based game using Swords & Wizardry: Whitebox plus my own set of houserules). However, there's a third way, which is solo gaming.

Solo gaming has a long and glorious tradition. There are a few ways to go about it, from getting solo adventures (which are more or less like the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books or adventure gaming books like Lone Wolf) to just making stuff up. Somewhere in between lie the concepts in Mythic Game Master Emulator, which I'll likely be using. Basically, MGME is a systematization of using random rolls to figure out what happens next. It acts like a dice oracle, where you ask a yes-or-no question, roll dice, and take the result as the answer. There are more complexities involved (such as "chaos factor" and "event meaning", plus a structured way of approaching the adventure and an admonition to use logic), and there are even more ways to use the material in the supplement, Mythic Variations, but that's the basic idea.

This, however, is not a review of that product, but is instead a discussion of what my ideal game (or one of them, anyway) would be. As a solo gamer, I get to do that, with no concessions to anyone else's vision. This is both good and bad. It is good in that I get to play in a situation that is exactly what I am looking for when I game. It is bad in that it lacks the wider context that comes when a group of people collaborate on the game. For every thing gained, there is something that must be lost.

So, what would my game be? First, the setting. I envision a sort of fantasy world subcreation that includes those things which are of particular interest to me. In this case, a lot of wilderness with scattered areas of settlement, some of which are larger than others. So far, a typical sword & sorcery RPG world. I'd like the magic to be more subtle than "pulp", with amulets, blessings, and curses rather than fireballs and glowing staves. And in the big change from traditional roleplaying fantasy, I'd like black powder, caplock revolvers and stagecoaches and pony express riders. Not science fantasy, not steampunk, not gonzo, and not historical Old West. More like Eyes of Fire, Pale Rider, The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, and Ginger Snaps Back than The Wild Wild West or The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., but set in a fictional world that I can play around in and with. Sort of like the relationship between Middle-Earth and the historical Dark Ages.

There's even less literature to explain what I mean, but Louis L'Amour's The Haunted Mesa and The Californios come close to the tone I want to set. The story game Dogs in the Vineyard, which I love, is very much in line with the idea, but I want to play a roleplaying/adventure game, not a story game. If anyone knows of other books or movies that they think might fit the idea, let me know. Edit to add: Durr. Of course Stephen King's Dark Tower books are very much in line with the idea. A couple of others that I thought of later were the Jonah Hex comics and William S. Burroughs's The Place of Dead Roads, though neither really fits the idea well.

In addition to the "fantasy Old West" vibe, I want to include some other aspects. One of the lands will be, effectively, 17th century Scottish highlanders mixed with 14th century Irish with mid-19th century tech. Another will be an area where Chinese and Japanese analogues have colonized. Of course, the whole land will be one of colonization, and there will be some sorts of Native American/First Nations peoples. Perhaps I will make them the "humanoids", and work with the problems of racism that are implicit in fantasy at least since Tolkien. Furthermore, I want to have a Mormon-like enclave.

The magic will be like Appalachian/Ozark Power traditions, Pennsylvania Dutch Hex magic, Hoodoo, Native shamanism, Renaissance magic, and the like.

Anyway, with setting loosely defined, that leaves me to move on to system. Some game systems work better for some styles of play. Plus, since this will be something I am doing for myself, I don't have to worry too much about pacing and similar issues, so I can use a system that is as complex as I can stand (or as simple as I prefer). To that end, and because it already has an excellent magic system that fits my criteria, I am going to use GURPS, with a lot of the "realistic" and "gritty" options turned on. Magic will use the Path/Book magic system from GURPS Thaumatology. Martial arts will exist, but not the Trained by a Master advantage or cinematic skills.

GURPS Greyhawk: Quivering Palm

Quivering Palm
Hard

Default: Pressure Secrets-10.
Prerequisite: Pressure Secrets; cannot exceed Pressure Secrets skill.

The most terrible technique gained by knowledge of Pressure Secrets is that fabled attack which allows the user to set up vibrations in the body of the victim, which ultimately will result in death. The attacker touches his victim (possibly requiring a roll against an unarmed combat skill if in combat, at -2 in addition to hit location modifiers as with other combat uses of Pressure Secrets) and rolls a success of his Quivering Palm technique to set up the deadly vibrations. If the technique is attempted, then the attack will not do normal damage. Any armor DR will protect against this technique entirely, though a strike through chinks in armor or to an otherwise unarmored location will allow the technique to work, and DR from tough skin has no effect. The touch can be attempted casually or in combat; a victim with the Trained by a Master advantage can attempt a roll against IQ-3 or Pressure Points skill to know that the vibrations have begun. Otherwise, no effects are apparent until the victim starts losing HP.

Beginning one hour after the vibrations have been set up a Quick Contest between the victim's HT and the attacker's Quivering Palm technique is rolled. If the victim fails, he loses 1 HP; critical failure makes the loss 3d HP. This continues every three hours until the victim manages to gain a critical success in the Contest or wins three Contests in a row (these results will end the effects of the vibrations) or until he dies. No medical skill other than Esoteric Medicine will alleviate this loss of HP, and only Esoteric Medicine will allow the reason for the loss to be diagnosed. Roll a Contest of Skills between the healer's Esoteric Medicine skill and the attacker's Quivering Palm technique; success alleviates the effects of the Quivering Palm for 24 hours. Three successful Contests in a row will end the vibrations. The person who inflicted the Quivering Palm can remove its effect by touching the target if he chooses (and the target allows himself to be touched). Magical healing or advantages which affect healing can restore lost HP as normal, but cannot end the vibrations.

(Largely, I am putting this here so that I don't need to keep my copy of GURPS Martial Arts 2nd Edition for 3E sitting in my stack of books to use.)

Removing this from the Greyhawk background, this could be renamed "Hand of Death", which was the original name of the ability when it was a skill in GURPS 3E. This version is a technique, obviously, and is appropriate to the martial arts of the Monks of Oerth. Like the Pressure Secrets skill itself, it should probably be treated as a Cinematic Technique.

This version of the technique is OGL. I think that it has been reworded enough to pass muster.

Design Notes: Character Improvement

One of the central aspects of roleplaying games is continuity and improvement of characters. Traditionally, this is accomplished by improving the character's abilities in some manner. The first RPG, Dungeons & Dragons, did this by increasing a single characteristic, the "level", in relation to victory points acquired by the character (called "experience points"). The "level" of the character determined how effective the character was at certain activities related to the character's general stereotypical category, or "class". Everything else was determined by an interaction between the player, describing what the character was attempting, and the Referee, adjudicating and describing the outcome of those actions. In a sense, experience points and level could be considered similar to the Polynesian concept of "mana" (as distinct from the later usage of that term to refer exclusively to magical power in games).

Those victory points, or experience points, were really the central feature of the character. They were originally gained by defeating monsters and other foes and by acquiring money and valuables. There was a long period of adjusting, in various editions, the ratio of experience from defeating foes and gaining treasure. In some editions, treasure outweighs confrontation by 3 to 1 or more, while in others treasure has been nearly completely devalued in favor of defeating foes.

After that, games developed three (or more, but this is what is coming to mind right now) different ways of regulating character improvement. First was the skill check system typified by RuneQuest, in which the use of particular abilities, or "skills", gave a chance of increasing that ability. Of course, there were other methods of improvement in RuneQuest, such as training, but those were artificially limited in order to encourage action. Next, there was the point system, developed by games like Superhero: 2044 and Champions. In this system, experience points were translated directly into character abilities, rather than being used to improve just one ability. In these systems, experience points were generally given in smaller amounts than those in D&D, and more importantly were given for story reasons other than the objective ones defined in early RPGs. This means that, rather than getting victory points for defeating foes or acquiring treasures, characters would gain them for subjective reasons like "achieving goals" or "good roleplaying". The third method was very rarely used, in fact I can only recall one game that used it. This was the method in Traveller, where skills were improved only by long-term training, but other character improvements were acquired by spending money on equipment. In a sense, this is similar to those editions of D&D in which treasure represents the majority of experience points, as money is used to pay for training and also for other improvements.

That last method seems like a good one to me (and to be fair, it is similar to the one in RuneQuest, which also used money to pay for training; the difference is that in Traveller's system, there is no direct improvement for simply acting and RuneQuest limited the benefits of training). It seems like it might be worthwhile, in a game, to expand on it. Consider the various things that we spend money and time on that improve our lives in one way or another. We might go out to a night club and carouse, with the potential of gaining friends and social skills. We might take continuing education courses or go to college. Even shopping for objects or property takes time as well as the money required for the items. And so on.

What a system like this would need is a robust contact system, a time use system taking at least calendar time into account, and a personal trade system that covers availability and time to acquire items or property. Perhaps I will use a system like this in the WRG RPG.

(This post was inspired by a post over on Dreams in the Lich House.)

Gamer ADD Strikes Again; GURPS Greyhawk

One of the significant problems with not having a regular gaming group is the tendency for random projects to pop into my mind and gain increased interest. So, I'm adding a third project to my already taxed workload of the WRG RPG and a Top Secret retroclone, converting Greyhawk to GURPS 4th edition.

Some assumptions that I intend to make:

Things in the folio are immutable. Things in the boxed set are influential. Things from the Sorceror's Scroll column are inspirational. Things from the later era don't exist. The year is 576CY. Screw metaplots, this is my Greyhawk.

The setting will be treated as though it is a real place, and that the statistics given are attempts to model that real place in particular game terms. This means that I am free to assume (for instance) that magic works like it does in GURPS without conflict with the AD&D system, since each is simply a model for a "real" magic of the world being described. Ideally, this could mean that any GURPS magic system could be used to model magic, including (but hardly limited to) the basic Magic system or variations thereof, Path/Book, Ritual Path, the various Syntactic systems, Powers, or whatever. However, what I will actually use will be the basic Magic system (for Magic User/Illusionist magic), Divine Favor and True Faith (for Clerical magic and undead turning ability), Tree Magic (for Druidic magic), and Powers (for Psionics). I still have to think about mana levels, but I'm leaning toward near-universal Normal Mana, with the Sea of Dust being a major exception at Low Mana. There will be Alchemy and Herb Lore.

$1 (GURPS) is the same as 1 sp (AD&D), making 1 AD&D gp the same as $20 GURPS. GURPS price lists, especially those in Dungeon Fantasy, will be assumed, unless there is special reason to use the AD&D ones. Because I am nothing if not inconsistent, I'll use the AD&D2E weight of coins at 50 to the pound.

A 1st level character in AD&D will be more or less the same as a 75 point character in GURPS, with every level additional adding about 15 25 GURPS points. For conversion purposes, multi-class characters will be treated as in the tournament modules: count a multi-class character as two levels higher than the multi-classed character's higher level, or three levels higher if triple-classed. I'll work up templates of the classes at level one, probably with variations for different types, for example archers, infantry, and such for fighters. However, templates are not classes, and characters in GURPS Greyhawk are not locked into a particular advancement scheme. They aren't even required to use a template (which exist only for convenience and conversion).

Racial templates for PC races will be held as close to zero points as possible while maintaining the spirit, and as often as possible the letter, of the AD&D descriptions. This may be difficult. I'm going to try and simplify the races, so that (for instance) "Elf" is a race, and all of the different subtypes are cultural variations of that central species. Or not, we'll see.

Because of the existence of monks in Oerth, there will be Trained by a Master and Cinematic Skills available, probably along with Chi Powers. Of course there will be Martial Arts, and not just for monks, but monks will be the specialists in unarmed Martial Arts and pretty much the only source of Trained by a Master (and therefore of Cinematic Skills). Will they be able to use Chambara rules if they have TBAM? Probably. Yes. This does mean that Cinematic Maneuvers would be available, though of course only TBAM characters can improve them above default.

I feel free to completely restructure religions, since they were not, on the whole, defined in the folio. St. Cuthbert and Pholtus are the only two gods of good humanity that must exist (since they were part of the campaign that led to the folio), though I intend to be guided by the lists in the boxed set. Physical manifestations of the gods will be avatars of a sort. The gods themselves will be unapproachable, ineffable forces at the center of realms in the deep Astral plane. Or something like that. Demons and Demigods, on the other hand, will probably be just powerful (sometimes very powerful) individuals.

Alignment will not be a Cosmic Force. It will be merely descriptive. This is a personal aesthetic decision. As a corollary, the cosmology will not be as concretely defined and systematized as in the Great Wheel Cosmology.

In keeping with Oerth's background, there will be no gunpowder or anything like it. Fireworks will be magic spells, and so on.

I'm not sure how I should handle level-drain. I'm still considering what, exactly, it is supposed to model in AD&D, which should help me to model it in GURPS. My current thinking has it that it is a drain of spirit and self-confidence. To that end, I may just model it as the Terror advantage, which can lower a character's point value due to the Fright Check that results. There's even an explicit option to have it take effect by touch attack (but the powerful undead like Ghosts and Specters may not need the touch limitation; I see in GURPS Fantasy that the Wight there is given a Freezing Touch attack, but I'll probably change that to a Terror Touch). Vampires should be modeled as drinking blood in the normal way, and with Infectious Attack/Dominance, though they should probably get some Terror, too.

If you have any suggestions or thoughts, feel free to share them.

Pop Culture and D&D

Part 8472598249862476097906729560276 in an ongoing series: