Obscure Games - Swordbearer

It wasn't the cover that attracted me to this game.

Wow, I guess it's been a while since I've made a post at this blog. Reading Brendan's post on the forgotten RPGs, I thought I'd make some quick notes about a few of my favorite games that aren't D&D.

First up, one of my favorite games that I've never played, Swordbearer. This was a fun little thing published by Heritage USA (normally a miniatures company) in odd books 7" high by 8.25" wide. These were designed to fit the box - a box of the same design that Heritage USA's miniatures sets came in! Later, it was reprinted by FGU in a book of more normal dimensions. It's still available from the latter publisher, too, as both a PDF and print book. FGU also made a supplement (same link), which was a campaign setting for the game. Most of the rules are standard, old-school design. There aren't any character classes, per se, but players choose specialization in skill categories (either two different categories or only one but gain bonus skills) and a previous occupation. Wealth is measured not in accounting, but by a wealth rating (a mechanic that has been copied by many games since then, from The Burning Wheel and Reign to Epiphany). The magic system, though, was something special. Spells (most spells, anyway; there is a second magic system based around spirits, which I will get to) are divided among 8 elements, which is a pretty standard idea, but the neat part is how they are powered. A spell-user will collect "nodes" of various sizes (usually power 1 to 3, but nodes of up to 9 power exist). The nodes can be "aligned" to a particular spell or left unaligned. Alignment can be done to any spell the spell-user knows, or he can allow the node to align randomly. Spells are rated in the power of node that they require, and a large enough node can align multiple spells up to its total power. The success of alignment is based, largely, on the number of unaligned nodes that the spell-user commands.

Now comes the fun part. The success chance of using the spell without destroying the node and the speed of casting is based on chaining nodes through a sequence of dominance. Don't you love that the technical language of the game sounds like the sort of thing that a spell-user might say? "Dominance" refers to the fact that each element dominates one element, and is dominated by another one. Thus, Wood dominates Wind, and is dominated by Water. This is similar to the elemental system of real-world Chinese Taoist alchemy. An oddity of the elemental system of Swordbearer is that Light and Darkness are different elements, but are treated as the same element on the sequence of dominance. The longer the dominance chain, the faster the spell, and the less likely that the node will exhaust itself and vanish.

There's a method of determining how often a spell-user finds a node when searching, a percent chance of finding one by accident, plus the Referee is encouraged to place particular nodes where they seem appropriate.

As I said above, there is also a second magic system, Spirit Magic. This also is based around nodes, but Spirit nodes are found in living creatures. There are two ways to use these: either kill the creature and take its Spirit nodes, or align one's own living Spirit nodes. There are four types, based on the four Humors of early medical theory (Vitriolic, Phlegmatic, Choleric, and Melancholy). Each Humor includes six spells, such as Charm, Familiar, Resurrection, or the various Undead spells (including Lich). Spirit magic doesn't have the advantages of the sequence of dominance, and is more powerful but more risky. Since it is rare for an animal to have Spirit nodes at all (for instance, a horse has only 3% chance of having one, and even a winged horse has only a 10% chance), while sapient beings always have at least one (and usually 3), Spirit magicians are usually seen as unwholesome at best.

The combat system is based on the pace of 2 1/2 feet and the instant of 4 seconds. It's a fairly tactical subsystem that is designed to be easily streamlined to description. Kinda like GURPS with less available complexity.

Overland travel is based on the league of 15,000 feet (6000 paces). There's a fairly large table that compares terrain roughness (or altitude) and vegetation cover, plus available roads, and gives the time in hours required to cross each league (rounded to the nearest quarter-hour). For instance, crossing a league of Lightly Rolling Brushland on a Trail takes 1 3/4 hours on foot, or 1 1/4 hours on a horse. There's also a listing of visibility distances for each terrain category (Lightly Rolling Brushland has a listed Visibility of 4 leagues), though this is modified for intervening terrain and altitude so that someone looking over lower terrain might see 12 or even 20 leagues in good weather. There are modifications made for traveling parties that are ill, wounded, exhausted, traveling in bad weather, and so forth. It sounds complex as I write it out, but the actual system seems like it would actually be pretty easy to use in play, so long as the travel table were available and the Referee had maps that included the necessary information - and of course it is not intended as a straitjacket anyway, but rather as a resource that is available to the Referee to gain verisimilitude.

There are a lot of nonhuman races in the game, from standard ones like elves, dwarves, and halflings to unusual choices like harpies, centaurs, and even dragons and giants! In addition, there are races unique to this game, such as bunrabs (like humanoid rabbits - perhaps not surprising since B. Dennis Sustare was also the author of Bunnies & Burrows) or moonspiders (intelligent giant spiders). I'd probably cut the available races down a bit, getting rid of some and emphasizing others (I really like bunrabs, and would like to use them to completely replace halflings - which is something that I will probably do in some of my D&D games, too! I mean, rabbits live in cozy subterranean warrens, they spend their lives thinking mostly about food and mating, and they are stealthy and elusive, but tough when backed into a corner - sounds like halflings to me).

Anyway, Swordbearer is a really neat game. I'd love to play. Who knows, maybe I'll run it one of these days.

Stupid Idea For A Magic System

Some of the comments in this post gave me a stupid idea. Using hit points as magic points seems like a neat idea. It plays into the idea of hit points as luck, divine favor, and so on. It gives magic using types a resource to manage that is non-trivial to balance against other considerations. It's just that, as others noted, creating a whole new magic system is a pain in the ass.

Fortunately, there already exists a magic system written for a version of D&D that uses hit points as the magic points of the system. In the D20 version of Star Wars, the Jedi and other Force users use hit points to power their abilities. Now, it would need some conversion to go from D20's skills and feats (which is what the Force system in D20 Star Wars is built around) to regular D&D terms, but at least the conversion is possible. Instead of spell books and spell slots, these sorcerers (we might as well call them that) would learn things at each level that are analogues to the skills and feats of D20 Star Wars.

Not something I'm going to do right now, but just thinking about it. Another magic system that I'd like to write up one of these days is also inspired by those comments, but it would be even easier since The Palladium RPG did a version of it, and that's the magic user who gains powers from pacts with demons and other spirits.

Portals And Skyships Of The Black-Blooded Earth

One thing that I can't help doing is worldbuilding. It's like breathing for me. As a result, there are some things I already know about the world of the Black Blood of the Earth, even though play has not yet started.

One of those things that I know about is the Portals. No one is entirely sure where the Portals came from, though legends speak of strange men with grey skin and powerful magic the likes of which has not even been matched by the Blood Sorcerers. Not all of them seem to work any more (though some can be induced to work through the power of the Black Blood of the Earth), but the ones that do work reliably allow instantaneous travel across the continents. It's said that some Portals, hidden in caves, underground cities buried by the passage of millennia, on uninhabited islands, or deep in trackless swamps, travel to different worlds entirely. Perhaps a Portal can be found that leads to a fabled land beyond the sky like lizard-filled Torsh, Oerth, modern Earth, the Majestic Wilderlands, ancient Barsoom, maybe even the Dreamlands or dread Carcosa.

Of course, there are other ways to get to the worlds beyond the sky, such as the Skyships. Powered by magic and the Earth's Black Blood, these ships can fly into the sky and beyond, to the edges of the crystal sphere and through the mysterious, fiery phlogiston to other crystal spheres containing other worlds. The phlogiston flow to Oerth is particularly well-traveled, but other spheres have contact with the Black-Blooded Earth.

[EDIT 17 AUGUST 2012] None of this will be included in the final world. The themes involved can't include other worlds to which the people can escape. I may move these ideas to the Terra Ultima setting instead - or I may have to make a new world setting to use these ideas.

Zines!

There are now two print zines out there, plus a one-shot zine/module. This is a good thing.

There's Loviatar, of course. Christian's zine is excellent. Currently, much of the space is being taken up with a hex-by-hex publication of a hexcrawl for D&D type games (specifically statted for B/X, and so directly compatible with Labyrinth Lord and BECMI, but also good for most other D&D-based games with more or less conversion).

And there's now Dungeon Crawl. I don't know what this one is like yet, as I've only just ordered the first issue. Looking forward to it!

There's also the estimable Zogorion, Lord of the Hippogriffs. A one-shot zine/module, I highly recommend this short adventure, statted for Swords & Wizardry, but obviously an easy conversion to any similar rules. Nominally for levels 3-7, I don't recommend that any players approach it as a hack-n-slay opportunity.

"This Sort Of War Can Be Fun"

It's brief, but there's a quick overview of wargaming with miniature soldiers in this video. There are other hobbies included, as well, such as building toy steamships, slot car racing, and model trains. Men will be boys, indeed!

Getting Ready To Run AD&D - Current Thoughts

Since WotC has seen fit to reprint one of the better editions of D&D (sure, it's limited, and sure, you can only get it in North America [UPDATE: Turns out that's not true], but it's a start), I'm preparing myself to run a campaign using those rules. I'll be using the Black Blood of the Earth setting assumptions, building most of the details during play. Because I am masochistic, I guess, I'll be trying to use as many of the rules straight from the books as possible. I figure that most players, at this point (including myself), have played more complex games, everything from Shadowrun to GURPS, and much more besides, so this shouldn't be too difficult in comparison.

Nevertheless, I'm going to have to house rule some things. Unarmed combat? Using System I from Unearthed Arcana, which was Gary's preferred method, anyway (though no other rules from that supplement; magic items and spells, however, may show up, and I'll take anything from the extended weapon list that I feel like). Encumbrance? I'm not sure, but I may go to Encumbrance by Stone, since Delta is right, and very few people enjoy calculating encumbrance by coin weight.

Weapon speed factors? I want to use these, but even Gary decried them (thanks, Beedo, for that link). I'm still mulling this one over. I've heard a number of options which make them useful, but not overwhelming. On the other hand, I will definitely be using weapon AC "to hit" adjustments. They're really not that complicated in practice (though as a Referee, I'd have to rule on the AC type of monsters or just use the overarching ruling that there is no adjustment for natural armor, which latter I'd feel uncomfortable with, personally), and even easier if the character sheet has space to record them. In both cases, these are elements that make one weapon different than another, forcing trade-offs when choosing between them. This is a good thing in my book. Similarly, weapon length is valuable for charges (and, oh yes, I will be using the charging rules), and space required is also necessary in those narrow dungeon corridors. No way will two halbardiers or doppelsoldners fit in a 10' corridor! Firing weapons into melee and helmets are definitely going to be used. I'm on the fence about random melee targets, though. Also on the fence about morale: I'm going to use it in some form, but whether to use the one in AD&D, the version in Battlesystem, or move to the version in BECMI/Cyclopedia is still an open question.

I'm basically going to stick with segments in some form (we'll see how those weapon speed factors turn out), so spell casting times will be in force. Material components? Track that resource, mages!

Gender-based stat limits are going away. They had some funny ideas of how to do things in the '70s, but that one is kinda offensive in retrospect. Level limits and racial stat limits, though, will be enforced because I like humans and want them at the center of the game. Don't like it? Don't play a nonhuman. I might, depending on how I feel at the time, even disallow nonhuman PCs. That's actually a tempting idea. It would allow me to take the faery races and make them more… fey or whatever. Unhuman. Alignment, on the other hand, sucks rocks as written, and will be definitely jettisoned in favor of a system based on the article "For King And Country" from Dragon #101, or possibly a simple Law/Neutral/Chaos version like the one from classic D&D.

Training times for leveling up will be in force, but the costs will be substantially revised. XP for magic items is definitely one to use.

Psionics and the Monk don't need much modification (well, I might use -C's psionics rules, or perhaps the minor changes in Dragon #78; either way, I'll be adding a Psionicist class). The Bard, on the other hand, will be completely revised as a normal class instead of a proto-prestige class, based on information in Dragon #56 (with the "Songs Instead of Spells" article and original spell progression replacing the spell list in that article).

So, the list of classes will include: Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Magic User, Illusionist, Thief, Assassin, Monk, Bard, Psionicist. I may include some other classes from Dragon magazine (The Bandit from Dragon #63 is high on my list of consideration), but probably not many.

So, my main area of concern still is the use of weapon speeds. Suggestions for ways to make use of them would be appreciated.

Edit to add: Here's a thought for weapon speed and initiative. Roll initiative by side, but individuals act on a segment equal to their weapon speed modified by the losing initiative roll (alternately, the difference between the initiative rolls) and Dex reaction adjustment. Add segments if on the losing side, subtract them for those who win initiative. So, if the two sides roll 4 and 2, the side rolling 2 adds 2 to weapon speeds to determine segment of action (natural weapons are mostly speed 1), the side rolling 4 subtracts 2 from weapon speed. Results below 1 act on segment 1, above 10 on segment 10. Casting time in segments is the "weapon speed" of spellcasting (and is not modified by Dex reaction adjustment [edit] or winning initiative roll, only modified when initiative is lost [end edit]).  Tied initiative rolls act on weapon speed modified only by Dex reaction adjustment. Missile weapons are treated as speed 5 for those which get a single attack in the round; 3 and 7 for two attacks; 2, 6, and 8 for 3 attacks. All attacks from an attack routine go off at the same time. Multiple attack routines happen after a two segment wait (so, if two attack routines start on segment 7, the second will be on segment 9; if one is on segment 9 or 10, the next will go off at segment 10). If two attacks happen on the same segment, the winning initiative side goes first (if also tied, the attacks go off simultaneously). The Dex reaction adjustment is always subtracted (so a Dex 16 subtracts one segment, a Dex 4 adds 2 segments).

Further Edit: I forgot to mention that I am also thinking about modifying the weapon proficiency rules along the lines of the article "Weapons Wear Out, Skills Don't" in Dragon #65. Basically, this groups similar weapons into a single proficiency and adds some formation and special skills (similar in some ways to Feats). Also, I plan on allowing any character to use any weapon at any time, but they can only take proficiency in the listed weapons.

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).