I've Become Aware of a Disturbing Trend

I can be lazy. No, really, it's ok, I can admit my faults. I started my gaming life as a wargamer. Of course, that led directly to roleplaying. Now, with old school wargaming you played with heavy cardboard counters maneuvered around on a map. Prerequisite to this movement was the set-up. The counters had to be sorted and appropriately placed. In many cases this was very specific, based on which unit was historically present at a given location. For some games this could literally take hours (the Longest Day game, from Avalon Hill, is an excellent, and extreme, example).

Over time I discovered that I was playing less due to the tediousness of the set-up. I still wanted to play, or more specifically, I wanted the fun of playing. In other words, I wanted fond memories of a well-played game, but was increasingly put-off by setting up the game.

Fast-forward to this Weekend

This weekend I went bat-shit with [S.]ine [N.]omine. I already had Stars Without Number and several Mandate Archives. I nabbed the pdfs of Skyward Steel, Other Dust, Red Tide, An Echo Resounding, Darkness Visible, and Suns of Gold. I also picked up more recent Mandate Archives, along with Black Streams for Red Tide and Codex of the New Earth for Other Dust. It's been quite a haul. In case it isn't obvious, I've become quite a fan of Mr. Crawford's work.

How does this fit in with the title of the post, and the blurb about wargaming? Good question. Here is the answer in a nutshell:

I've been spending more time reading about the above titles rather than actually reading the titles.

An obvious side-effect to my employment with FedEx has been a sharp decline in my posting here. It has been a necessary, and lamentable, sacrifice. It is actually a by-product of the real sacrifice: a near-total lack of time to devote to gaming on any level. The weekend is the only time I have to squeeze in any time for anything game-related.

I guess we could safely file this post under "Whiny Little Bitch". If you've reached this point in reading this and feel like it has been a total waste of your time, you have my sincerest apologies. It's just been one of those things I needed to vocalize, in hopes that it will help me move past it.

Dang it! I forgot!

DrivethruRPG is having a sale thru March 15. 30% off selected items. All of the [S.]ine [N.]omine things I mentioned (that aren't already free) are included in the sale. If you kicked yourself for missing the Stars Without Number Bundle of Holding, now's your chance to do-over.

False Start

So, I previously owned the 3rd edition of Ars Magica. I never played or GMed it, though. It was during my days with my "D&D or Death" group. I loved most of the ideas of the game. I honestly don't remember the system overly. I remember the covenants, troupe-style play, and of course, the magic system. Mythic Europe struck me as one of the coolest "settings" ever devised, and I still hold that opinion. From time to time I still google the game and look at various reviews and forum posts.

Recently I finally decided to go ahead and order a copy. It was one week ago today, in point of fact. The game is in its 5th edition, which based on all my research, is the best. Fans of Ars Magica don't indulge in edition wars, though. They almost universally like every edition of the game, although they acknowledge the 5th edition as the "best".

So, I bounced over to Amazon, searched for "Ars Magica 5th Edition" and came up with this:

I selected a Used Paperback (Like New condition), and waited. The projected delivery date was this past Thursday, which surprised me. I didn't select any sort of expedited shipping. Well, it didn't arrive on Thursday. I was tracking it online and knew it had found its way to Atlanta. I also knew Atlanta was locked in the grip of a rare southern snow storm, so I expected a delay. It arrived Saturday (yesterday).

When I opened the box, I saw this:

I was not amused. As I said earlier, fans of the system have plenty of good things to say about all the editions, but I want the latest, and generally considered best, edition available. Besides which, I have the free pdf of 4th edition which Atlas Games makes freely available on their website.

After some clicking and "research" into the Amazon page, I discovered that ALL of the paperback copies are 4th edition. That is not made overly clear, considering you get to them from the 5th edition page. On top of that, while far from identical, the cover bear the same "celtic snake" centerpiece. Well, to be honest, I think my own haste played more a part than a very modest similarity in cover art. My main point of confusion, though, was that I did not anticipate the 5th edition product page to take me to 4th edition buying options.

Anyway, I notified Amazon. I chatted with a representative about the problem last night. In the end, I was issued an RMA and return shipping label. I was told that the procedure is that I return the unwanted product and that upon receipt they will credit my debit card for the purchase plus shipping. It should take about three weeks total for the credit to be applied.

BUT . . . my representative went ahead and issued the credit request, rather than have me wait until they received the 4th edition copy. That was excellent customer service. I was very pleased. I've not had any problems with Amazon before this, so I had no experience with their customer service. I've not had any qualms about using Amazon, but this experience make me even more comfortable.

As soon as I finished with customer service, I went back to the product page and promptly ordered a hard cover copy of 5th edition. Guess what? It is due to arrive Thursday.

The Great Kingdom Trailer

The Great Kingdom is a documentary chronicling the history of TSR and D&D. This is a trailer and it looks pretty damned good. As an added bonus, parts of the trailer feature "Ten Years Gone", one of my absolute favorite songs of all time. Vastly underappreciated by the masses, it is easily one of Led Zeppelin's best, and that is saying a lot.

Ranging Far Afield

It occasionally happens that I become hyperfocused on OSR. My attention zeroes in on D&D and all of its direct descendants. The term is vague enough to encompass anything the person using it should desire. Does it refer to games with a particular progenitor? Uh-huh. Does it refer to a specific play-style? Sometimes. Can it refer to a specific period of time? Sure, why not.

Even in the face of bouts of being hyperfocused, it has never been my aim with this blog to limit myself to any narrow definition of OSR. This post is a direct result of looking beyond where I had previously focused my attentions.

Who remembers this? I can't recall exactly when I became aware of this. It wasn't in the form pictured here. It was an advert for Arms Law as a stand-alone product. It was billed as a drop-in replacement for the combat system of whatever RPG one happened to be playing. In all honesty, at that point in the hobby, it was aimed squarely at D&D. RQ and D&D were the only two with serious crunch and market presence, and RQ already had a crunchy percentile combat system. It promised a combat system that resolved all attacks in melee with no more than two rolls.

It achieved this by having the attack roll also indicate damage. The system's take on armor was quite interesting, and still very solid in its conception. Simply put, heavier armor actually makes you easier to strike, but much harder to critically injure. You'll take more "exhausting" damage as you get knocked around inside the armor, but your squishy bits are more protected.

The second roll (if required) was the critical roll. It was based on the type of damage a weapon caused (slashing, piercing, or krushing), and a letter value based on the severity of the hit. There were separate tables for the damage types.

This isn't really intended to be about Arms Law, despite the amount of time I've spent describing it.

I had a very serious flirtation with Rolemaster, the unification of all the "Laws" into a single system. During my first great break with D&D, I loved RM's supposed realism, its ability to model a wide variety of character concepts, and the "nerd" value of using such a chart and math intensive system. I had some friends that were into it, too, and we played some. Not much, nor regularly, as we lived a few hours apart. Eventually RM fell into my regular ADD rotation and would get some attention every few months. Even that waned once I lost all my old ICE products. I never really worried about replacing the materials due to my preferences moving toward "lighter" systems.

One of the things I always loved about RM was the house setting for it: Kulthea, the Shadow World. There are a number of concepts I still love in this setting. The geography for one. I mean, look at that map. It makes me want to be there. The peoples of the world are often times isolated and cut off from one another by powerful flows of magical energies, as well as forbidding geography. There are world-spanning organizations, such as the Navigators, who have learned to travel using these magical energy currents. There are the Loremasters, dedicated to recovering and recording knowledge from across the breadth of Kulthea.

If you've read much of my ramblings, you know it is a sad fact of my life that I don't have any second-hand stores that make a point of catering to gamers. There is one used book store in Huntsville that is of any real use to me. There are actually a fair number of used book stores, but all save the aforementioned one cater mainly to used romance paperbacks. I sporadically drop into the Booklegger because they do have a very small game section (populated primarily with World of Darkness titles). Hope springs eternal, and I did actually find a softback copy of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay there.

You can imagine where this is going, and you're (mostly) right. I found a copy of High Adventure Role Playing, HARP, in there for $10. It is the older ICE edition, not the newer one published by the Guild Companion. I don't have a clue what the differences are. I believe the GC edition has a slightly larger page count.

HARP is its own game. It borrows from RM, even to the point of using it as foundation. It is not a "lite" version. I guess in a way it is to RM what Castles & Crusades is to AD&D (HARP is in no way OGL, though). It is a streamlining and re-imagining, not a replacement nor is it some sort of quick-start.

I still haven't read it all the way through. It claims to be complete. It contains stats for over 40 creatures. It contains six individual spell lists for the spell using classes, but there are some spells that appear on more than one list. There is a very serviceable treasure section, including mundane treasures.

Characters are a combination of class/level and skill based. Skills are all-important, and any character has the ability to learn any skill. Class and level govern the development costs of individual skills and when development points are gained, respectively. Thus, it is easier for a fighter to learn weapon skills (lower development point cost) than for him to learn a spell. He can learn the spell, but it will greatly impact his development in his chosen profession.

The skill list isn't particularly burdensome. Skills are divided up into 10 categories, with between 3-9 skills per category. The categories are important as they inform the types of things a given class is naturally predisposed to.

There are nine classes, five have spell lists, and thus use magic in some capacity. The class descriptions are very brief and setting agnostic.

The usual races are present, along with a unique system for mixed-race characters.

Ok, so I didn't intend to go into this kind of depth with this post. I just wanted to ramble about another game from my past and a younger cousin of it I recently found. If anyone wants to know more about the game I'll be glad to share, but for now, I think I'm going to get back to reading.

OSRIC A5

I received my copy of the A5-sized OSRIC from Lulu yesterday. Here are some pics of it next to a standard size paperback.

It's a hefty chunk of book, no mistake. I love books that are complete in themselves, and have this smaller format. I still love the idea of having a complete game, and a set of dice, in a smallish box, imminently portable. I guess it's a holdover from my days with my original white box.

As an aside, I saw in a forum (I forget which, I also forget the date of the post) that the A5 is only available in print.

There is a free pdf at RPGNow. One of the great things (for me) about the A5 pdf is the Compiled tables at the back. There are 14 pages of tables, focused exclusively on character concerns. Attribute bonuses, all the class tables, spell lists, etc. The only DM tables are monster experience points tables. It would be a snap to cull these from the pdf and create a booklet of tables a la the Reference Sheets from the white box.

There are many fine reviews of OSRIC floating around. I'll just say this: it is a very complete game. Monsters stretch from page 192 to 320. Man-types get an extensive treatment, which I like seeing. The old letter-based treasure types have been integrated into the monster descriptions, which I think is awesome. There are extensive encounter tables, and one of my favorite things: detailed rules and tables for intelligent swords.

I've only briefly dabbled with OSRIC until now. Then I found a 40% coupon from Lulu and discovered this A5 format at about the same time. I'm really happy with this purchase. As much as I love LBB D&D and got my start with it, the vast bulk of my playing and DMing was done with 1st Edition AD&D, so this little beauty has been a real homecoming for me.

I will close by saying that Lulu did an awesome job. With the coupon the total cost for this was around $11, right to my front door. I ordered it Dec 22, received the email that it had been printed and was being shipped the 23rd, and received it the 28th. Totally awesome. Plus the geek factor of knowing that this particular copy was printed specifically for me. How sweet it that?

Combat Prowess and Critical Hits

I have this idea. It involves modelling an increasing fighting capacity beyond the improvements on the "to hit" matrix and improving hit points. I am calling it Combat Prowess. It also goes fist-in-glove with a basic critical hit system. In a nutshell, a critical hit is basically scored on a to-hit roll of a natural "20'. In this case the attack does maximum damage. The Combat Prowess options to follow improve on this.

Combat Prowess
Essentially, Combat Prowess is a pool of points that may be spent to modify attacks in various ways. The options available are limited by level, as is the number of times they may be used in a given turn. The options are:

Most of them are pretty self-explanatory. It is worth noting that any points used apply to only one attack in a given round. That is not to say that points may not be spent on more than one attack, however. So, if you spend 1 point for an additional attack, giving you 2 attacks, you may spend one point on each attack for a +1 to-hit on each. In this case, you would be using a total Prowess of 3 points.

Effect C,  -1 enemy "to hit", applies to a single enemy, but it does apply to all attacks from that enemy.

Effect D, +1 to critical range, improves the critical range. +1 improves the critical range to 19-20, etc. A critical hit will be indicated by any natural roll within the range.

Effect E, Additional attack, grants the combatant an additional attack. Additional attacks are not modified by Prowess unless points are allocated specifically for them.

Effect F, +1d6 on a critical hit, allows an additional d6 to be rolled and added to the damage total in the event of a critical hit. Note that Prowess must be allocated for this effect before the attack is rolled, so it is a bit of a gamble, though the bet may be hedged by also allocating Prowess to Effect D.

Effect G, +1 Initiative, is added as a general bonus in group initiatives. That is, all bonuses from all characters are added together, then divided by the number of characters to arrive at an average Initiative bonus. Of course, in an Individual Initiative situation, it is added directly and unmodified.

Prowess is gained differently for each class. The following table illustrates when each class gains points, which effects they are eligible to employ, and how many points may be allocated to a given effect each turn.

* The number of times a letter appears indicates the number of points that may be allocated to that effect in a given turn. For example, a 7th level fighter has 4 Prowess points, and access to effects B, C, and E. In any given turn he may spend 2 points on A, 4 points on B, 2 points on C, 2 points on D, or any combination not exceeding the total of 4 points.

I hope this isn't too confusing. It is one of those things where I know what I mean by all of it, but it isn't that easy to communicate. My goals here are twofold:

• Higher level fighters should be rightly feared. When a party goes into a brawl with a creature with 6 HD and a d4/d4/2d6 attack routine they are rightly fearful. So, too, should someone be when facing a 6th level fighter.
• I want players of fighter types to have some tactical options during combat. Even though fighters are my favorite class to play, it can turn to drudgery when a drawn out combat turns into a monotonous succession of nothing but "to hit" and damage rolls. To sit quietly waiting for the DM to shift his attention to you and your "turn" is over in all of three seconds is not very satisfying. It often leaves me feeling a bit powerless and at the mercy of the dice.

Lastly, I want to reiterate that I have no group, so these ideas are untested. I'm not a number-cruncher, I eye-ball these sorts of things and just do what "feels" right to me. As always, I welcome comments and feedback, especially from the mathematically inclined, who may have some insights into how these bonuses feather in with the "to hit" matrices and anticipated damage outputs, in the RAW.

Ruminations on OD&D: 3d6 In Order and Level Limits

Now that the Christmas shipping madness has passed I might be able to get some writing done.

I have played with a LOT of people over the years that ignored these two simple guidelines. Of course, it was mostly AD&D 1st/2nd Edition mash-ups, but the principle still applies. I, myself, disdained them for a large chunk of my gaming life. It is only now that I have returned to my gaming "roots" that I really understand their intent. I will go out on a limb and admit that I think they pose a rather ham-fisted solution to a perceived "problem", but nevertheless, I do understand them, and the necessity for them.

They are demographic controls. Especially post-Greyhawk OD&D, with the introduction of Paladins, Thieves, and multiclassing, opened a flood gate of new classes and options that still continues. OD&D doesn't go to great pains to balance classes against each other. It is mostly achieved with the XP tables. Some classes are inherently more powerful, though, than a simple XP increase can account for. (ahem, Paladin, cough cough). So, the problem becomes "how to limit said class". Places strict attribute requirements and require 3d6 rolled in order. To play a Paladin you would have to roll a 17+ on Charisma, not just a 17+ in a group of 6 rolls. Other new classes have lower absolute requirements, but more of them.

So, if you don't have a particular problem with a party full of Rangers, Druids, and the inevitable guy who insists on playing a chaotic good assassin (one who has seen the darkness in his heart and now kills for a good cause), then you may safely ignore 3d6 in order and do it however you please. Seriously, there is no sarcasm in that. Maybe a plethora of supposedly-rare classes all functioing in a single group is not a concern for your game. All I'm saying is, I see the reasoning in it.

Same for demi-human level limits. This is the one I was really directing the "ham-fisted" remark at. This one is dirt simple. Who wants to play a dwarf when you top out at level 6? Well, somebody who really wants to play a dwarf. Who wants to role play a dwarf. Oddly enough, I've been in that boat where humans are concerned. I've played in games with virtually no restrictions on what I could do with my character.

In the group I played with most often, we rolled 4d6, dropped the lowest and re-rolled 1's. Arranged to taste. no racial level limits, any race could multiclass. If we wanted to be a certain class but didn't have the stats for it, the DM would tell us to put the best number we had on the stat and he would raise it to the minimum.We weren't middle schoolers min-maxing, mind you. We were just very player/character focused. As a group we shared DMing and we all wanted each other to play whatever we wanted. We didn't want to force anyone into a class/race they didn't want just so we could be in line with the rules. Ironically enough, I was typically the only guy playing a straight-up human fighter.

It seemed that with our high-brow way of thinking, we believed that we, as players, had to have maximum freedom to "design" the character we wanted to play or else it wouldn't be fun. We never explored the possibility of finding the fun in a character that we "found" through random generation. I think we missed more than we gained.