Wizards with Swords

For my next stab in the dark at game design, there has to be wizards with swords.

Thou shalt kick ass.

That's really all I have to say. It's badass.

I read a post on Enworld the other day about some guy in 4e who wanted to have a wizard with a sword and dude totally had to pick up three feats to do it "right." That might be the craziest thing I've heard in a long time. It makes you wonder, why are people so afraid of houserules and making stuff up? If it was me, I'd be like "Fuck it, man, go ahead and have a sword."

When my buddy wanted to play a minotaur, we essentially just had him roll up a Fighter, and then decided that he was big and had horns and stuff. If it turned out to be important that he was a Minotaur (which it didn't, as he didn't survive the first level), I suppose we could have made something else up. If the guy decided that he wanted to have the stats of an Elf, that would've been cool, too. I wonder how malleable, as a thought experiment, the classes really are? It's kind of the tack I went with the Aremorican Addendum, where the classes are just classes and there aren't any non-human races, but by renaming and rejiggering the classes, it doesn't quite have the same impact. Plus, there isn't really an Elf class, but that Marksman never quite had a good niche with me, and it could use a bit of reworking...

Maybe not quite dual swords, but still.

We could give the Marksman the Elf's perception, and then give it nature magic and combat abilities on a one-to-one ratio, but then again, I've entirely done away with Vancian magic for the time being. It's due to be re-included, but then progress on an appropriate name has stalled it somewhat. The new Marksman could have perception and tracking and then archery bonus stuff and that could be enough to give it a good niche. Let him be the scout type character, looking around and stuff. People do seem to enjoy the scout/tracker aspect of the Ranger and the Elf, so it might even be the right way to go. Hell, it's my favorite part, too!

So on my to-do list for the Addendum:
1) Add some Vancian Magic (maybe a wizard class? who can use swords, even.)
2) Change the Marksman into a Scout and give him perception abilities instead of just straight archery bonus.

Well, shit, I'll sleep on it.

Invocations is Cool, Or, Love What You Write

By the Left Bicep of Crom, I'll kill that... whatever that is!

How often are you excited by what you write yourself? Right now, I'm excited about Invocations.

Invocations are my way of making Crusaders have a taste of divine magic without making them clerics. God, how boring are clerics? Hey guys, I'm a good warrior, wear armor, level fast, and am the only guy who can heal? Pf, showoff.

But anyways, Invocations are what let your crusader shout stuff and get rewarded for it. "By Zeus' Beard, I will smite thee, demons!", or "By the Black Staff of Amnomnos-Za, I will bedevil you!" It accomplishes two main goals of mine in the Aremorican Addendum.

1) It makes every class have a different mechanic, sort of. In other words, the exact opposite of the general trend of samey-classes because everybody needs to be equally good at everything at all times otherwise nobody is having fun. 

2) It means that you better goddamn believe that at the table if you want to get the benefits of the Rage invocation, you better say, if not shout, something about being angry and how your god will lay a holy fucking smackdown on that orc over there. Like I said, shout. Your crusader is flying off the handle, yelling at everybody he sees because that's what religious people do. Ever seen that YouTube video about the God Warrior? Here's the link. That's your Crusader. "HE'S NOT A FOLLOWER OF YLETH-HMOR YOU MUST DIE!" Seriously, try it out when you're a Crusader. If you don't have 100% more fun being an insane God Warrior, then I'll eat this blog post.

Pictured: Hilarious

Put in more concise terms, that's Let Players Be Different and Encourage Silliness. If you haven't noticed by now, I'm not really that serious of a guy. If you're not having a good time doing whatever it is you're doing, then that's really not good. I'm no fan of the Rule of Cool, but that doesn't mean that you can't find regular, everyday stuff Cool. The problem with the Rule is that it's horribly misused by people who think that the Rule of Cool should be capitalized, and that stuff should be capitol-C cool instead of "dude, kickass, you just gutted that orc. His guts are all on that blade and now you're kind of smelly," and you look over and the dude across from you is laughing because how goddamn rediculous is it that now you smell bad because you attacked some guy and, hey look, we used silliness to break the ice, move the game away from the game-world into our shared imaginary space, and now we're having fun instead of trying out out-cool each other. Everybody wins, unless you have to capitol-w "Win", and then you lose.

My bad.

Aremorican Addendum: Bonus Material!

I gotta come out and say it, bonus material is a bit of a misnomer for a free pdf, right? Doesn't matter, since it's some stuff that's been in the works for a hot minute and now's the time for it to see the dawn of light.

Yeah, that thing.

The highlights!

• Crusaders get their own magic system, called Invocations. They bellow the names of their gods on high, and are rewarded with divine aid. Think "By the thunderbolts of Zeus, I will destroy you!", or something as simple as "Crom's Beard!"
• Diabolists get an expanded spell list! An additional three to five spells are added to each spell list, and Frost magic gets added to their list of spheres.
• Acolytes and Sorcerers each get a minor tweak to change the flavour of their powers. Sorcerers channel elemental might instead of summoning an elemental minion, and Acolytes get their magical abilities tweaked a little bit. For example, Rejuvenation is a little weaker, healing 1d4 instead of 1d6 per casting.

What else is coming down the pipeline? Well, Dark Skies Above Us is about halfway done, having detailed the major areas, and a good chunk of the minor areas. Let me enthrall you with a little teaser, in the form of area 3:

Area 3:

In this room are two zombies (hps 3, 8) and one ghoul (hp 7). 

They are discussing something in a bizarre tongue, and can be heard through the door if the players listen.

In the room is a small chest containing the shared belongings of the three; 25 silver and four gold, as well as an iron dagger and a small silver idol weighing one pound.

Notice: Three terse sentences detailing what's to be found, what the monsters are doing, and what's in the treasure chest. The details regarding what the area is like, how broad the tunnels are, and all of that jazz are directly under the section heading. A DM can read through the section heading quickly and easily to devour the information and, hopefully, get everything across to his players quickly and easily.


Be on the lookout for when the updated Aremorican Addendum drops, as well as when Dark Skies Above Us comes out! I'll post here, so check back!

Returning to the Fold: Aremorican Addendum

Every good adventurer needs a Pigeon Companion.

So last myself and T. Hamingston managed to get together, collect our girlfriends, and play a game of Labyrinth Lord using my Aremorican Addendum. It's kind of cool how easy it is to get people to play games with you when you ask for "help playtesting." No, seriously. Try it out sometime and see how the reticent player in your life suddenly shows up ;)

But it was a good time! Let me list each other players' credentials so we get a better idea of what's going on.

T.Ham: My longtime player, having played the Basic and Expert part of the BECMI game, 3.5 a good bit, a dash of White Wolf gaming in forms of Aberrant, Vampie, and Mage, Palladium (to the extent anybody can play Palladium), Donjon, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and Dead Meat: Ultima Carneficina Dello Zombie.

A.O.(my girlfriend): Has so far played 4th edition, on my two-session runthrough of the system. Has notably complained about magic constantly missing (due to bad luck with rolls, but still), and about how combat takes forever to resolve. These are the two same complaints I had with the system. She's a big fan of Lord of the Rings, Alice in Wonderland, that Dracula movie with Keanu Reeves, and B-grade zombie movies. No wonder we're dating, right? ;)

J.B. (Hamingston's girlfriend): Has played nothing, ever. This would be her first roleplaying game of any sort. She was the reason I was nervous, since it's easier to game with people that already know how to play, and with people who know the sword and sorcery, fantasy, steampunk, or some sort of popular gaming genre.

The result: Everybody had fun! They managed to storm two of the towers, and smash some Plague Orcs into pulp. They looted a magic shield and managed to accumulate a small pile of gold and silver, just enough to whet their appetites for more looting and slaying. The session unfortunately ended short of what we would have liked since I had to get my uniform back from the tailor's, but such is life.

Some quick highlights, then I'll get out of your hair:

• Labyrinth Lord is easy as hell to teach to new players. Character creation took no more than five minutes, once I explained dice nomenclature and how both hit points and armor class works. THAC0 (my preferred notation) was also explained.
• The character sheets look great. No, seriously. If I haven't mentioned them before, they're the ones located here: http://dwdstudios.com/node/201. Use them. Seriously, they're beautiful. It might take a little tweaking to get them exactly where you want them, since you have to make sure your printer will put ink on the very edge of the page, but by god is it worth it. Easily the best-looking character sheet I've used in 10+ years of gaming.
• I used the house rule where on a natural 20, you not only do maximum damage, but you also get an additional attack. The caveat is that you can't make the attack with your primary weapon. For example, the Crusader got a natural 20 on his first attack roll of the game, where I informed him of the rule. He then decided to knock the orc on his ass with his shield, and then chopped the orc's head off. Badass.



Snicker-snack, motherslapper.

• The other best house rule I used was the one where you tell me how your enemy dies. It can be anything- you earned it. The Crusader's sword turned vorpal, slicing heads and emptying braincases onto the dusty ground. The Diabolist was conjuring pillars of fire and exploding her foes like popcorn. The Marksman was emptying bolts straight into her foes' heart, and through their eyeballs. This really helped people loosen up, since it's a little silly to hear yourself say, "My bolt goes straight through his eyeball, killing him," but damned if it wasn't awesome. It helped that my players were rolling hot, often killing zombies and orcs with a single hit, so they got to feel pretty awesome while still being in danger. 
• The Crusader (bless his soul) managed to get attacked by a putrid, obese, bestial plague orc with five-inch long nails that managed to rake him through his armor. I decided that this particular big nasty would grant Pus Pox, and he dutifully obliged by failing his saving throw. I informed him that the ragged wound had infected him, but hadn't taken effect yet. The next time we play, it will.
• The party ended the game by descending 40+ feet from a trapdoor in the laboratory/tower into sheer darkness. If you've read the module, it's a pretty badass place to be and my favorite section that I never thought of in the initial game. Hopefully they have as much fun as I have next time. We should be able to game again soon- wish me luck!

Reworking Abjurers and Crusaders: Thought Process

One of the ways that I'm not satisfied with Aremorican Addendum is that it treats Crusaders and Abjurer's prayers almost exactly the same. To wit, Abjurers are the men of the cloth who conjure divine aid through concentrated effort, like a holy sorcerer. Crusaders are more of the typical cleric role, wearing thick armor and hefting sharp tools to slay their foes, like a combination of paladin and cleric. To digress a bit, I've always found the cleric to be a poor fit in my game. He's a pretty formidable package, in that he levels faster than the fighter, can wear the heaviest armor, and casts the most useful spells in the game (and anybody that denies that parties live or die based on their ability to cast Cure X is either lying or possibly a heretic). Essentially, the cleric is a fighter / priest, which is unusual, since the paladin is a cleric/fighter, or, depending on the particular game, simply a difficult to qualify for "fighter +". That's not cool.

For a mere 18 Charisma, this too can be yours.

Not only does it make for an odd game concept, but it means that they're treading on each other's toes. In many cases, the cleric not only treads on the toes of the fighter, but tramples all over him- it's easily arguable that a cleric brings more utility to the table than a fighter at any level. The guy's ability to fight passably well combined with his thick armor and ability to heal means that clerics are always more welcome in a party. And the paladin, as written, is simply poor design. What's the point of him, anyways? Does he represent a holy warrior, because we have one already. Does he represent a knight? We have that already too, in the Fighter.

So something has to give. The cleric is simply too awesome, he's always a good choice. So I made the long-coming decision to snip him into two: the Abjurer and the Crusader. The Abjurer is a master of prayer, but cannot use good weapons or any armor. He fights abysmally. His hit die is small. But he is able to level up quickly, to counteract his various flaws, and his ability to Pray is extremely useful.

The Crusader, on the other hand, is the cleric melded with the best bits of the Paladin. He's a powerful fighter, but cannot wear as heavy armor. He also doesn't get the small bonuses the Fighter's been rewritten to receive, such as the additional hit points. In exchange, he gains small bonuses in the forms of a couple of prayers.

But the Crusader and the Abjurer can't really share the same spell list. They have totally different roles and totally different needs. To an Abjurer, it doesn't matter if he spends the round praying, he's not really doing much else, so it doesn't matter if he has to stand there and pray. He at least can choose from a wide variety of useful, "buffing" prayers, and a couple of damaging ones, and a couple of general purpose utility ones. It doesn't matter if his prayers don't last long after he's done praying, since it's entirely possible for him to stand around and do it some more. He's like a wizard, in that he's not supposed to be doing anything other than casting spells, ideally.

But the Crusader can't stand around praying. He's got stuff to do, people to slay, shields to bear. He needs to be able to run around and do magic at the same time, just less potent magic. He needs to be able to have prayers that last a little longer, since they're the only thing that separates him from the generally more capable Fighter.

That, and the love of the ladies.

So I'm thinking of separating the spell lists, and giving the Crusader his own mechanic, possibly something in the realm of either an "aura" type thing, where he basically asks for divine intervention and it affects everybody around him, which lets him pray before battle and then spend the rest of the time kicking ass, or possibly instead of a prayer, an invocation. This fits the theme, in that crusaders should invoke their gods whenever the times are rough- i.e. "By the frost-bitten beard of Aurgelmir, I smite thee!" The only limiting mechanic that comes to mind as to how many times you can shout about your god and have it be noticed would be like a more penalized Prayer system. For example, your first invocation is free, the next one fails on a roll of 1, the next on a roll of 1-2, the next on a 1-3, and so on.

This would create a system where the Crusader's first invocation of the day always works, since the god hasn't heard from him in a bit and is probably curious. His second is also likely to be heard, but by the time his third rolls around, his divine guidance is wearing thin. So it means that the Crusader is allowed to have his protective magic, but he's got to be careful as to when he uses it, lest it go entirely to waste.

Aremorican Addendum: Playtesting!

Today's the day that I get to take my recently released Labyrinth Lord supplement, Aremorican Addendum Volume 1: Player Option for a test drive! Exciting, right? It's a good chance to see what works and what doesn't, and to see what character options are the most popular. It's been a metric of mine for a long time that if you can't decide what class to be, then the classes are all awesome and your job is done. Keeping in mind player preferences, that is- there's no accounting for taste, right?

Anyways, it's going to be a group of four, with T. Hamingston being one of the usual suspects, and also my girlfriend and his as the other two. Three PCs isn't bad, especially not if you consider that half of the time, I'm DMing for two PCs instead of three. It's exciting, because Ham's girlfriend has never played any sort of roleplaying game before, isn't really into sword and sorcery and hell, doesn't even talk that much. So hopefully we can have a good session without me running her over with my evil, evil killer DM instincts. That's sarcasm, by the way. I know we're going to have fun, since we always do.

The module of choice in this situation is going to be none other than my own Servants of Plague module, mostly because it's the one that's freshest in my memory and all of my attempts to sit down and read through one of the more classic modules like Keep on the Borderlands or the Outpost on the Edge of the Far Reaches (available free from the Warlock's Home Brew, if you've missed it) have failed for a week straight. This is due to my personality, mostly- in case it doesn't come across in the blog, I'm an excitable fool, always chattering and thinking and writing and tinkering and all of that fun stuff. I'm not particularly good at sitting still unless it's at my computer and even then I'm not very good at it, preferring to write a couple of hundred words all at one sitting, without any particular foresight or direction. My girlfriend jokes that I'm bipolar sometimes. That just shows you how cruel she is.

But back to gaming! Servants of Plague is actually a pretty good module, assuming that your tastes in fantasy run towards B-movie zombies, nastiness, and a little bit of grit. For example, the first time I ran the game, the players made it to the first room of the keep, where the garbage pit lies. I looked at my skeletal notes, and decided that a couple of plague orcs were there, looking for scraps to eat or possibly any sorts of missed treasure. The players rode in on their horses, and the plague orcs, surprised, burst out from underneath and beside the piles of garbage. A deadly game of hide and seek broke out, as the plague orcs used the enormous filth piles to hide behind, while hurling straight lengths of rusted metal as javelins and smaller chunks as slingstones. One plague orc leapt out and attempted to use his own intestines to dismount a player!

The players did eventually win, though we weren't able to complete the module. It's for that reason that I'm using it again on poor Ham, since he had only gotten roughly halfway through. There's plenty of secrets to be had, even if I played it "by the book" both times. That's the real secret to using the Servants of Plague and something that I think marks a difference between old-school and new school; old-school gives you the bones and says "make something of it, or just steal from it, whatever" and new school says "I know better than you, if you don't run this as written you're doing it wrong."

But I digress. Heavily.