A Quick Thank You

I watch my blog stats pretty regularly, and yesterday it hit 31 pageviews for the day. As far as I can recall, that was the most in a day and the first time in the 30's. I'll be happy when I start getting comments, but my pageviews are up, my visits count is over 2100, and tomorrow is my birthday. So, thanks for reading to all of you that do.

S&W Complete Fighters

I've been trolling some S&W Complete forums, and a common thread (pardon the pun) has concerned Fighters. There are a lot of questions concerning the ability of Fighters to fight defensively:

Parry: Fighters with a Dexterity score of 14 or better can fight on thedefensive, parrying enemy blows and dodging attacks, as shown on thetable below.

I bring this up here because the threads I'm seeing are several months old and I don't want to necro. I do want to address this, though, since I have some thoughts on it.

The concern has been whether this ability continuously functions or if it is some sort of tactical option. The main crux of it is that Fighters are the only class to enjoy bonuses "to-hit" and damage, so should they be able to take advantage of a high DEX ability in addition to high STR bonuses in a given round.

There have been several ways of handling this question put forward. The most harsh, for the Fighter, is an either/or situation. Parry was defined in many games as a full-round defense which improved AC by -4. The other end of the scale was that the ability is always "on" and is fully functional with the STR bonuses. The most common middle ground answer was to render it as a tactical decision, that is the player would choose which bonus to take advantage of round-per-round.

Personally, being the Fighter-phile that I am, I say both bonuses are always in effect. The either/or option completely invalidates this as a class ability. Any class can Parry, at the expense of their attack, so that negates this as a "class ability". Sure, the Fighter does it better than anyone else, most likely, but so what. I also don't really like the tactical option approach. It weakens the ability. Does any other class have to choose which action to apply a bonus to? If a bow wielding character is attacked hand-to-hand in the same round he fires his bow, is the player forced to choose to apply his DEX bonus to either the missile attack -or- AC? No.

I think the problem is that people are looking in the wrong place for the answer. They are fixating on the word "can" in the above quote:

"can fight on the defensive,"

Which to them, can equals optionally. If looked at in that way, sure, I can see it. Can would imply "if they so choose".

However, I think the operative word is fight. Fight, meaning attack. They can (as in "have the ability to") fight (attack), while maintaining a sound defensive aspect to their tactics.

Besides which, it is obvious that an effort has been made to give the Fighter unique class abilities to make them desirable, mechanically. And that's a Good Thing.

Swords & Wizardry Complete

As you know, my love for D&D has been rekindled of late. Also obvious to readers is the fact that I am enamored of S&W. I got the pdf a few weeks ago, but was only recently able to get it printed. I'm one of those that doesn't enjoy full-scale reading on a computer monitor. So, I've only just starting perusing this little gem.

I should make it clear right now: this is not a review. I'm not shooting for a degree of objectivity with the goal of helping you make your purchasing decisions. These are just my thoughts. Carry on . . .

So far I've read the character classes and races. Remember all the stuff I said about three classes in a previous post? It's still partially true, but not as much as it was. There is something about the flavor text with each class that softened my perspective somewhat. The paladin's restrictions on companions' alignment still makes it more of an NPC class to me, I still think the monk is out of place, and druids and rangers aren't dungeoneering classes, in my opinion. Otherwise, I liked what I read.

Oh, and did I mention that Fighters rock? Of course I didn't. Well, they certainly do. Fighters are my favorite class (and I've played them all in 35 years of D&D), even though it is very disheartening to be the biggest badass fighter on the continent, decked out in the finest armor in generations, swinging a truly brutal weapon, and smacking the big bad monster for a max damage hit of 24 points, only to have a thief backstab it for 60 points. Or the magic-user hit it with a lucky 10d Fireball for 50 points.

Not so in Complete. For one thing, Fighters, and only Fighters, get combat bonuses for Strength. Fighters means only Fighters. Paladins and Rangers need not apply, not for this or any other Fighter-specific class feature. Features like multiple attacks (wherein the Fighter can make one attack per level if all foes are 1 HD or less), and Parry (where the Fighter gets a bonus to AC based on DEX, with a separate scheme from the normal stat bonus). There is also the aforementioned Fighter-centric bonuses to the "to-hit" and damage rolls, which apply (and stack with the DEX bonus) to missile weapon use. Ahhhh, Fighters with a bow can be played as formidable archers. At last.

I may port over my cleric rework from my Crucible house rules. I'm not a huge fan of the class, never have been, so I don't have much "respectful" nostalgia for the cleric of the LBBs (or their clones).

The races are pretty much what you would expect from the S&W take on the LBB races. Perfectly serviceable for a more-or-less vanilla sandbox (such as the original Judge's Guild Wilderlands of High Fantasy, which I am salivating to use).

That's it for now. I'll post more perspectives as I continue reading. Any of my fellow gamers that have S&W Complete should feel free to comment with their perceptions on this edition of the S&W ruleset.

A Form of Hero Questing

I am very enamored of the down-and-dirty, low fantasy feel evoked by the LBBs and S&W WhiteBox. At the same time, I freely admit that I love Supplement I: Greyhawk, and S&W Complete (which incorporates much of that tome in addition to various bits of Supplements II & III).

One of the things I love most about the LBB's and WB are the bare-bones spell list. To me, nothing screams "High Fantasy" quite as loudly as high-level wizards tossing around reality-warping spells like Reverse Gravity, Summon Demon, Mass Charm, Meteor Swarm, and, of course, Wish. One of the things I love most about Greyhawk, and S&W Complete, is that it includes those spells. Dichotomy, thy name is mine. Welcome to my world.

Anyway, I want a way to include such high fantasy tropes without turning my game into high fantasy. So, I had this idea. All the spells, as well as magic items, in the LBBs/WB are more normally available. The magic items are still uncommon, some even rare. The spells and items from the supplements are the subjects of specific quests to find them. If your magic-user wants a spell to stop time, he will have to do research, not on the spell itself, but on the finished spell as written by some ancient, powerful magic-user. If your paladin wants a holy sword, it will come at the end of some epic quest.

I can hear you now, "So what? This kind of stuff is common business with any good referee", and you're right. I'm proposing something slightly different than the norm, though.

Since spells above 6th level for magic-users (5th for clerics) and certain magic items have the capacity to alter reality and change the world, those seeking them should be subject to change, too. It is a common theme that those seeking power are not only changed by the power, they are even more changed by the quest for power. Literature if replete with stories of heroes sacrificing their humanity, health, sanity, and their very souls in their quest for power. That power can take many forms and need not be inherently selfish in nature. But the desire, need, and effort for it require a heroic effort to attain.

There should not be Vorpal Blades in a simple treasure hoard, even if it is an ancient red dragon. A wizard shouldn't find a scroll with Delayed Blast Fireball among the other scraps of parchment in a lost library. These things should be the object of epic quests. The kind of quest that regularly causes the character to make tough decisions and sacrifices. The kind of quest that routinely begs the question "Is it worth (this sacrifice)?", until the character has come too far and given up too much to turn back. It is at that most beautiful moment, when the character becomes resigned to the Fate his choices have laid for him, at that perfect moment of clarity, that epic heroes are born.

A Simple Assumption

Everybody knows the story of the "Alternative" combat system in the LBB's and how it became "the" combat system. I was pondering how that came about. Chainmail's man-to-man system is serviceable enough. It definitely requires some thought on applying it to the dungeon crawl style of D&D play (as opposed to Chainmail's mass combat focus), but at its core it is pretty solid.

Damaging an opponent is based on two factors: weapon wielded and armor worn. Greater skilled was modeled by giving higher level characters more "to-hit" rolls. Personally, I don't view that as multiple attacks. It was established from an early time that there is a lot of give-and-take in a D&D combat round. A single "to-hit" roll actually represented the opportunity to cause damage, rather than a single swing of a weapon. Under the Chainmail system, a more capable fighter will create/find/take advantage of more opportunities to damage an opponent, thus the greater number of "to-hit" rolls allowed. Sure, it's more dice rolling, but if dice rolling is a problem, check this out.

I'm not going to pretend to know the thought processes that went into forging D&D from the raw ore of Chainmail's Fantasy Supplement. I will, however, make my guesses about some of them. I believe that Gary assumed that most of the purchasers/players of D&D would arrive by way of Chainmail, thus having ready access and understanding of that volumes combat rules. That simple assumption freed them from the necessity of including all of Chainmail's man-to-man and fantasy rules and tables. This is further born out by many of the monster descriptions including some variation of the phrase "otherwise as in the Chainmail rules" and numerous references to Chainmail's troop types (light horse, medium foot, etc). Acknowledging the fact that not all potential D&D buyers would own Chainmail, they included the "alternative combat system", so that the game would still be playable.

It must be remembered that this was during the formative years of the industry of our hobby. Distribution wasn't as wide-spread as today. This wasn't simply the latest role playing title, it was the only role playing title. There weren't stores built on a foundation of RPGs in those days. For many of us the only way to get the game was mail order (or "xerox", or for the truly desperate hand copy), and that took time. No new D&D player who wanted to get started groping through black pits or slaying dragons wanted to wait two months for another book detailing combat, especially when there was an alternative right there in the book.

The rest, as they say, is history. The "alternative combat system" was fleshed out and fully realized in Supplement I: Greyhawk. Part of this involved variable weapon damage and specific hit die types for character classes. I have my suspicions that part of the motivation for that may have been dice sales, since outlets for specialty dice were as rare as hen's teeth (I myself mail ordered dice, as well as Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry), but that is another topic for another time.

Characters of Heroic Proportions

If you've been reading this blog lately you know that I have whole-heartedly re-embraced my OD&D roots. I was poring over the Chainmail combat system, thinking about using it for a game, when I discovered something rather significant. This discovery lead me along a thought process I'd like to share.

I was referring back and forth between the LBBs and Chainmail, when I saw this:

"(Magic) Armor subtracts its bonus from the hit dice of the opponents of its wearer."
pg 31 Monsters and Treasure


Now, remember: the d20 combat system was given as an alternative in the LBBs. The default was assumed to be Chainmail, so much of the terminology and processes were taken from that game. In Chainmail, hit dice equated to combat capability, ie the number of attack rolls a combatant made in a given round. So, we see that in Chainmail terms, magic armor actually afforded an opponent fewer opportunities to damage its wearer. A very interesting concept.

As I pondered this, I started thinking about a Warrior (2nd level fighter, 2 HD, 2 attacks) engaged with a Swordsman (3rd level fighter, 3 HD, 3 attacks), carrying a +1 shield. If that rule is applied as written, the Warrior would suffer a -1 hit die penalty from the shield, leaving him with one attack. What if he were a common man, rather than a Warrior? Would the penalty negate his attack all together?

Obviously, the Fantasy Supplement for Chainmail was a rather fast-and-loose adjunct to what were essentially a set of wargame rules. As such, they can't be imported into D&D wholesale. It is clear from reading them, however, that the fantastic was supposed to be Fantastic, and that combating its perils was beyond the province of the common man. It was a job for other fantastic creatures (ie elves) or for men who had achieved a fantastic status: Heroes.

That spirit, that implied threshold between the mundane and the fantastic, and that  only men of heroic character have the mettle to cross it, is something I feel has gone missing from our games. The characters don't have to be heroes in the literary sense of the word, but they should be viewed by the campaign as those who are willing to grapple with the very myths, fairytales, and boogey men of the world, on their turf, in a quest for wealth, fame, and eternal glory.

Redefining the OSR

Anybody reading this, do yourself a favor: do not think the OSR is all about clones. That's what I did. I convinced myself that the only way to get in touch with my gaming roots was with a clone. The clones are awesome and they do an awesome service to our hobby. They get a lot of positive ink in reviews for their "restatement and clarification" of the old rules. That praise is well-earned, because they do collect, codify, and clarify many things that may have been spread across multiple sources. But never make the mistake of thinking that the clones ARE the OSR. They aren't. Technically, OSR stands for Old School Renaissance (or Rules, depending on whom you ask). For me, from now on, it stands for Original Source Rules.

If you can realize and accept that supplements, no matter how many "Official" labels there are attached to them, are just somebody's house rules, then you can really dig in and find your roots. It doesn't matter what your OSR of choice are, get back to the core, the kernel if you will, of them. Then, from there judge the absolute necessity of any additions or changes in a glaring light. If it meets your criteria, then install it, but do so on your terms. I'm all for the D&D at my table being my D&D, but it should always be D&D. Too many additions, changes, and house rules and it becomes a case of "I like a little D&D with my house rules" instead of the other way 'round.