Ho there traveller. It's a bit musty in here, but I've opened the doors again and tidy-ed up a bit. A new look, and a new phase for 7 Geases. I've made a new banner as well, this one's kind of a joke on my friend SBG's long standing complaints about my rampantly sexist web art. Well, here's some practical armor for the ladies, with a side of beefcake.
It's been a busy season, but I did run my Labyrinth Lord game. On the whole it was semi-successful!
It's hard to get 4-5 adults in the same room for several hours even once or twice a month. So I count myself lucky that we actually got 4 sessions into the game. However, I think if my campaign had really wow'd 'em it would have gone longer.
Sure, I've forgotten a lot about DMing, and that slows down the game. Also, playing computer RPGs doesn't equate with paper 'n pencil, so some of my assumptions about how familiar the players were, turned out to be wrong. And, I failed to take into account changing tastes in play style. I think mainly the pacing was off, and the atmosphere was a little weak.
I'm going to spend the next few posts discussing what went wrong, and even a bit about what went right. Then I'll talk about what I'd like to run next, if only I get the chance. Stay tuned for more.
2012-09-21
2012-01-22
Vanilla Classes and Sub-Classes in Labyrinth Lord
As I mentioned before I started planing for a Swords and Wizardry campaign and am in the process of shifting everything over to Labyrinth Lord. I had come up with a lot of good ideas for house rules that have no place in the better defined world of LL. However, I'm still going to add a few touches, especially to the character classes.
I've long felt the vanilla character classes don't receive the respect they ought and are overshadowed by the more imaginative sub-classes. I'm going to spice things up a bit by making a minor addition to each class and put some restrictions on the popular and over powered sub-classes. Actual house rules will be written on another page of the blog, but here is the general outline...
Cleric
Gains the skill Oratory which can be use in any neutral setting where the Cleric can address a large audience. The effects can vary, but all face these restrictions. The audience must be able to hear the Cleric and not become distracted during the oration. Also they must be willing to listen to the Cleric so NPCs of diametrically opposed alignment are not affected. This skill has no effect on other player characters.
Sermonize: Player dissuades audience from following a course of action.
Preach: Player can advise the audience or encourage them to adopt a new idea.
Harangue: Player whips some audience members into a fighting rage.
Fighter
Has Defensive Fighting which represents the martial skills of the trained warrior. The Parry option is very badly written and has no effect for most players since it relies upon the Strength bonus for effect (I'm going to make it have a value of at least 1 regardless for all classes). When not attacking in a round the Fighter gains a -1 bonus to AC which stacks with the STR bonus expressed as a negative number. A Zone-of-Control exists around the Fighter which enemies may not pass; 5' radius with a normal weapon or 10' radius with a polearm or oversized weapon. A Ripost attack may be made at -2 against one attacking enemy for each normal attack the Fighter gets each round.
Magic-User
Generally has great power later in the game, but needs help early on so they will receive an item. An Apprentice Wand is given to the Magic-User which contains one 1st level spell from their spell book or Magic Missile. The wand has a maximum of 1d4+2 charges and may be recharged the normal way, by casting the spell into it. When recharging roll 1d20 and on a fumble the maximum number of charges is reduced by 1.
Thief
May use Combat Stealth to get behind an enemy. A player may opt to use the skill instead of attacking he/she may move around an opponent who is engaged in melee with another character. It does not result in a Backstab, but in a rear attack which is against the raw AC (no Dexterity or shield bonus).
Sub-Classes
As a whole they do not have individual restrictions, but as a group they have role play requirements in the form of Story Obsessions. Every so often the player will encounter a mundane situation that has special relevance to their sub-class. A special herb may exist in this region, or a desecrated shrine might need to be restored, or maybe a rare book is seen on a shelf. Whatever the specifics the player must succeed in gaining the item or finishing the activity. If they do not accomplish this in one week they will act as a character 1 level below their current experience until they do so.
I've long felt the vanilla character classes don't receive the respect they ought and are overshadowed by the more imaginative sub-classes. I'm going to spice things up a bit by making a minor addition to each class and put some restrictions on the popular and over powered sub-classes. Actual house rules will be written on another page of the blog, but here is the general outline...
Cleric
Gains the skill Oratory which can be use in any neutral setting where the Cleric can address a large audience. The effects can vary, but all face these restrictions. The audience must be able to hear the Cleric and not become distracted during the oration. Also they must be willing to listen to the Cleric so NPCs of diametrically opposed alignment are not affected. This skill has no effect on other player characters.
Sermonize: Player dissuades audience from following a course of action.
Preach: Player can advise the audience or encourage them to adopt a new idea.
Harangue: Player whips some audience members into a fighting rage.
Fighter
Has Defensive Fighting which represents the martial skills of the trained warrior. The Parry option is very badly written and has no effect for most players since it relies upon the Strength bonus for effect (I'm going to make it have a value of at least 1 regardless for all classes). When not attacking in a round the Fighter gains a -1 bonus to AC which stacks with the STR bonus expressed as a negative number. A Zone-of-Control exists around the Fighter which enemies may not pass; 5' radius with a normal weapon or 10' radius with a polearm or oversized weapon. A Ripost attack may be made at -2 against one attacking enemy for each normal attack the Fighter gets each round.
Magic-User
Generally has great power later in the game, but needs help early on so they will receive an item. An Apprentice Wand is given to the Magic-User which contains one 1st level spell from their spell book or Magic Missile. The wand has a maximum of 1d4+2 charges and may be recharged the normal way, by casting the spell into it. When recharging roll 1d20 and on a fumble the maximum number of charges is reduced by 1.
Thief
May use Combat Stealth to get behind an enemy. A player may opt to use the skill instead of attacking he/she may move around an opponent who is engaged in melee with another character. It does not result in a Backstab, but in a rear attack which is against the raw AC (no Dexterity or shield bonus).
Sub-Classes
As a whole they do not have individual restrictions, but as a group they have role play requirements in the form of Story Obsessions. Every so often the player will encounter a mundane situation that has special relevance to their sub-class. A special herb may exist in this region, or a desecrated shrine might need to be restored, or maybe a rare book is seen on a shelf. Whatever the specifics the player must succeed in gaining the item or finishing the activity. If they do not accomplish this in one week they will act as a character 1 level below their current experience until they do so.
2012-01-16
Censorship and Sensibility, With a Side of Realism
Hi ho, I'm back from my big trip and thought I'd make a few quick comments on what's been going on in gaming news since I've been away.
We've seen big brouhaha around 5e and also around censorship as well. I feel like my previous post about sexism was quite prescient coming as it did before Stuart's piece in his blog Strange Magic about how graphic fantasy art should be and why. There are many questions to be answered when making a piece of art for an RPG. What's appealing? What's practical? What's realistic? What's appropriate for the audience? And when the item is question is for a commercial product there are also questions of propriety and age considerations.
In his post to Mythmere's Blog, Matt talks about the 2 depictions of a statue in the Black Monastery module from Frog God Games. The S&W version appears in it's original depiction of the member in question, while the Pathfinder version has a censorship block over it. Reasons for the change have to do with publishing restrictions for the two games and of course the "right" answer isn't so simple as either "Save the children," or "Free to be you and me."
When my friend SBG asked me to change the banner art for this blog (see last post) I didn't feel it was censorship at all. It was a reasonable request and it was the result of my audience changing. From a personal space for myself alone to a conduit where I share information and opinion this blog was transformed and the indulgent (and blatantly unrealistic and perhaps somewhat offensive) art was not acceptable.
I'd like to argue against setting standards by specious appeals to realism. Yes, the chain mail bikini is ridiculous as armor, it's only possible explanation is for sex apeal. However, historic barbarians probably did wear fur loincloths, and the Spartans certainly did excercise in the nude. Was Franzetta necessarily that far off? As for practical, well, even in a fantasy setting it requires a monumental suspension of disbelief to consider trudging for miles through underground caves in full plate mail. Imagine spleunking in a spacesuit and you'll see how absurd that would be.
In games we want a model, not the real thing itself. At Hack & Slash there is a good post on the evils of realism and while it might go a bit overboard it is a point well taken. In fantasy RPGs we differentiate between damage for daggers and swords, often by making 1d4 and 1d8 rolls respectively. Is this realism, or merely flavor? We could say all weapons do the same damage, or we could make all kinds of rules for weight, penetration, damage versus various sized targets, etc. Who's to say which is most realistic? While many seem to think more rules equals more accurate representation, I think it's only multiplying a missinterpretation.
We can segue neatly into the new 5e contraversy on the lines of rule bloat and loss of fun to minutea overload. Personally, I'm unlikely to move to the new version. Now, I have not played paper 'n pencil games with 3e and 4e rules, but I have played many computer games based on them. My main complaint isn't the complexity but the ease of failure when leveling. These games require hours of number crunching to get a good character build. I've probably spent longer researching perks and bonuses than I have playing. It's not that the later versions of popular fantasy RPGs are too hard, it's that they are too easy to mess up. If 5e can address this and make character development more organic rather than mostly a series of deadends I for one will be very interested.
We've seen big brouhaha around 5e and also around censorship as well. I feel like my previous post about sexism was quite prescient coming as it did before Stuart's piece in his blog Strange Magic about how graphic fantasy art should be and why. There are many questions to be answered when making a piece of art for an RPG. What's appealing? What's practical? What's realistic? What's appropriate for the audience? And when the item is question is for a commercial product there are also questions of propriety and age considerations.
In his post to Mythmere's Blog, Matt talks about the 2 depictions of a statue in the Black Monastery module from Frog God Games. The S&W version appears in it's original depiction of the member in question, while the Pathfinder version has a censorship block over it. Reasons for the change have to do with publishing restrictions for the two games and of course the "right" answer isn't so simple as either "Save the children," or "Free to be you and me."
When my friend SBG asked me to change the banner art for this blog (see last post) I didn't feel it was censorship at all. It was a reasonable request and it was the result of my audience changing. From a personal space for myself alone to a conduit where I share information and opinion this blog was transformed and the indulgent (and blatantly unrealistic and perhaps somewhat offensive) art was not acceptable.
I'd like to argue against setting standards by specious appeals to realism. Yes, the chain mail bikini is ridiculous as armor, it's only possible explanation is for sex apeal. However, historic barbarians probably did wear fur loincloths, and the Spartans certainly did excercise in the nude. Was Franzetta necessarily that far off? As for practical, well, even in a fantasy setting it requires a monumental suspension of disbelief to consider trudging for miles through underground caves in full plate mail. Imagine spleunking in a spacesuit and you'll see how absurd that would be.
In games we want a model, not the real thing itself. At Hack & Slash there is a good post on the evils of realism and while it might go a bit overboard it is a point well taken. In fantasy RPGs we differentiate between damage for daggers and swords, often by making 1d4 and 1d8 rolls respectively. Is this realism, or merely flavor? We could say all weapons do the same damage, or we could make all kinds of rules for weight, penetration, damage versus various sized targets, etc. Who's to say which is most realistic? While many seem to think more rules equals more accurate representation, I think it's only multiplying a missinterpretation.
We can segue neatly into the new 5e contraversy on the lines of rule bloat and loss of fun to minutea overload. Personally, I'm unlikely to move to the new version. Now, I have not played paper 'n pencil games with 3e and 4e rules, but I have played many computer games based on them. My main complaint isn't the complexity but the ease of failure when leveling. These games require hours of number crunching to get a good character build. I've probably spent longer researching perks and bonuses than I have playing. It's not that the later versions of popular fantasy RPGs are too hard, it's that they are too easy to mess up. If 5e can address this and make character development more organic rather than mostly a series of deadends I for one will be very interested.
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