Procrastination's a Bitch

I looked at my old posts, and realized that I haven't created anything, game material or otherwise, since this time last year!


Oh time, where have you gone?

On the plus side, nothing makes you more eager to release something than the brutal reminder that you haven't actually released anything in an insanely long time, so I guess I'll get to work on something to show you guys.

This picture is unrelated but sufficiently silly.

I'd really like to be able to start writing up short location-modules and release a little blitz of them, and maybe I will. It's the locations that interest me, after all- the monsters and treasures and reasons to be somewhere are really something that you should be making up yourself, you lazy people.

Demi-Human Level Limits

This is such an old subject that I'm sure that nothing I have to say will be new in the least.

But still, I forge on!

If you haven't heard, I plan on using Microlite 74 to run Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits the next time my buddies are up (whenever that is), and I'm actually kind of excited. I love the fact that Microlite 74's rules are maybe five sheets of paper, folded in half, including the monster and spell listing. I love the fact that there aren't specific saving throws, and that the optional rules contained in it are genius. Its brevity is compelling, its concision is great.

But it has demi-human level limits in it.

This is a problem.

The module I plan on running is for characters from levels 10-14, which is fine because Microlite 74's recommended max levels are 12-14. Cool, looks like we're about evening it out and besides, how much more powerful can you get than invading a god's homeworld and attempting to beat her up? Makes sense to me.

Given that, I can only assume that max level for a Dwarf and roughly max level for a Human Fighter should be equivalent. But it doesn't make sense. The Dwarf isn't hitting for as hard and doesn't have as much health, in exchange for the fact that he can detect doors and is resistant to magic. Makes sense to me, honestly-but why on earth will he have half the health of said level 12 Fighter? This game fiction is telling me that both Elves (with a max level of 8) and Humans are tougher than Dwarves. If you'll pardon my french, c'est merde.

What I'm thinking of is giving it a little tweak, by using the very excellent Ancient Auguries and letting Humans (and humans only) choose special abilities from the list given, with such cinematic choices as "dodging", "cleave", and "leadership". I like it a lot, not in the least because it helps fix Dwarves (and Elves too, I guess) right up by giving them a little something.

So my house-rule for Dwarves and Fighters is:
At 3rd and 6th level, a Fighter may choose a Special Ability from the list provided. Each Fighter ability may only be chosen once.
At 6th level, a Dwarf may choose a Special Ability from the list provided. Each Dwarf ability may only be chosen once. 


And I'll write up some Dwarf Special Abilities later, or something.

The other course of action I could take would be to change the Experience Base from 20 to perhaps 22 or 24, making the Dwarf naturally level slower than his companions, and then giving the Elf an Experience Base of, say, 24 or 26 to make up for its natural advantages.

I guess that's what really gets me- the Elf gets better powers and gets a higher level, too. Well, no more of that! Equality for Dwarves! Or something!

EDITOR'S NOTE: I guess I looked over the part that said to give Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings an increase to their Experience Base if you don't like hard level limits (which I don't), but I'm still going to give Dwarves a lesser bonus to their fighting stuff. I guess honestly, once you give them a level penalty, they're basically fighters except slower-learning, with a couple of cool abilities, but I'll have to put more thought into it. I kind of like the way I have it, where Dwarves have a lesser experience penalty due to the fact that they only get one bonus special thing, but Elves have a pretty serious penalty (being two classes and all). Halflings seem fine to me, especially when you give them a miniscule penalty to round out their smallish benefits.

Minor Magical Items

One of the things I'm trying to get away from as I populate my magic item list I mentioned in the last post is something I've talked about before: Boring Magical Items.

For the purpose of this discussion, we're not talking about boring things like Healing Potions or Wands that aren't much but placeholders for having actual wizards and clerics around, or things that just aren't very exciting like the Boat of Folding. We're talking today about the venerable, boring, blank +1 Sword.

"This is a generic magical item," is what Boring Plus One Sword says to you, "I have no backstory and do nothing but give you a bonus on your attack and damage rolls. I am otherwise a normal sword."

The problem, if it wasn't obvious, is that you have the phrase "generic magical item." There shouldn't be a "generic magical item" any more than there should be "stereotypical dwarves" or "boring-ass wizard" in your game. It doesn't mean that every sword that you find has to be a +4 Holy Avenger or a +3 Sentient Flaming Sword. We're talking about making items interesting, not making them "awesome" or "cool" to the point where everybody's running around with high-powered items and you've gone from Boring to Overload.

Let me give you an example I particularly like (if I may be so bold as to post my own work):

Leaf-blade Arrows (Unique): This bundle of ten +1 arrows was crafted by an elvish wizard and are made entirely of wood, with a leaf-shaped head. They are as hard as iron and will not burn.


And there you go. You now have interesting +1 Arrows. Not super interesting, but there's a couple of things in there that mean that these arrows have a history. They have a purpose. They're magic. 


Another example, this time from the basic Labyrinth Lord book:

Sword +1, locate objects: The wielder may locate objects as the magic-user/elf spell one time each day, to a range of 120'.

You have a sword that's still a +1 sword at its core, but now you have a magic item with, again, purpose. The wizard who made this clearly had a spelunking, tomb-raiding accomplice he made it for. Or maybe somebody who kept losing his spellbook? You can picture the guy who made it, you can imagine who he gave it to, and most importantly, it reminds you that this weapon is magical. You can have really sharp, really mundane sword, but how many swords find your car keys for you?

Microlite 74 & Queen of the Demonweb Pits

I plan on running Queen of the Demonweb Pits using fresh 10-14th levelled characters using the Microlite 74 rules, because I am a silly person and also a glutton for self-inflicted punishment.

See, there's a reason I'm not using Labyrinth Lord or OSRIC or Swords and Wizardry, and that reason is: I hate making high-level characters in those games. I tried, one time, to have our group make high-levelled characters using the Rules Compendium pdf that I had (it's still kicking around somewhere, on a mislabelled folder in an unused and forgotten hard drive, I'm certain), and we crumbled somewhere between trying to figure out henchmen and getting magical items. The rules are notoriously vague concerning higher levelled characters, and it took me way too long to decipher, by which time our enthusiasm had petered out and it was late, besides, so we ended up having a couple of drinks (if I remember correctly) and playing something else.

But my desire still remains. Using what I've learned about myself and my group's (totally understandeable) impatience with character generation, I'm going to take a couple of steps towards making it easier and faster, so we can unravel the mystery of that wierd-ass magical egg thing and also delve deeply in Llolth's quivering demense. (That sounded so dirty!)

You would be surprised at the amount of softcore
spider-woman images you can find.

1) I'm going to use the Microlite rule to get character generation done in absolutely record time, and worry about the minor niggling incompatibilities with the rules in Q1 later. Because I'm a DM and I'm going to make something up when we get to it.
2) I'm going to pre-generate the magical items, make them unique to the game-world, and then go from there. All I need now is some sort of way to determine what the "average" level of magical items would have been for characters that would have gotten there "organically", by playing through them. I might see if I can find the pdfs of the rest of the series, tabulate how many and of what quality the magic items would have been, and then go from there.
3) I'll probably also pre-generate the characters, because it won't take me much longer than it'll take my players, and as long as I leave the items, name, origin, and all of that off the character sheets, it really can be just about anybody and there's not much to it, anyways.
4) I'm gonna make a binder that will house Q1 and also the character sheets and the magical items (which I might put on index cards, because that's one thing about 4e that I thought was totally ballin'), and that way when it comes time to finally run this thing (next month? I dunno), I'm just gonna whip out the binder like KCHYAAAA and there's some ass-kicking right there, look at this shit, it's so fuckin' great.


So couple of questions:
1) How much, and what sort of magic items would you give to a newly-generated level 10-14 guy?
2) Any advice on running it, you sage veterans?
3) What was my third question going to be?


Thanks in advance, guys. O-)

That's a smiling cyclops, if you were curious.

Rant: "Skill Rotations"

I know that the roleplaying audience skews a little older than the MMO audience, so bear with me while I explain everything to the other side. K?

Let me give you a brief history of where this topic came from: I was looking at my Steam page at the games I'd bought over the past couple of years when I landed on Spiral Knights. Clicked on the news thing (1 million registered users, hey not bad), and then read the article and the read the comments. Got through a dozen or so neutral or negative comments (mostly complaining about the time limit in the form of "energy", which I totally agree with), until I get to one comment that said something I really like.

He said, in short, that the reason he thinks a lot of people don't like Spiral Knights is because it can't be reduced to a spreadsheet, and that it's all about player skill. In most games you just need the correct gear and you win, but not in SK. Which is true, both ways.

One dissenting comment said, in essence, that's not true: it's about skill rotations. Skill rotations. Let me explain by way of picture. By my (admittedly and proudly dated) knowledge of World of Warcraft, I'm here to tell you that this is the skill rotation of an average tank (defensive warrior-type who "grabs" the attention of the enemies by some wierd-ass formula).

To some millions of players, this is all it takes to make a compelling game. This is what skill is, is recognizing the right values on a spreadsheet, to know what skills to cast and in what order while standing two feet from a dragon and pounding it on the snout. This is what "roleplaying games" means to some millions of people.

And, most annoyingly, this is what some people call "skill" in a game. This is not skill. "Rotating" abilities by managing cooldowns is not skill. It isn't difficult. It's why World of Warcraft has so fucking many players. Protip: It's because it's not hard. You're rewarded with shiny loot and new spells and bigger enemies and glowing level-up shinies and more badass things to ride for, essentially, knowing when to press 1 and when to press 2, and pressing 3 when 1 is unavailable due to cooldown and 4 when 2 is on cooldown.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS.

What kind of bizarro world do I live in, where people honestly think that this is a difficult game? You don't think I know? I've played a lot of MMOs, and it's the reason that I flat-out refuse to play any MMO that has more than two of the following:
a) automatic "tab targetting" (where you hit tab to select the nearest enemy, so that you can hit 1 and run over to him and hit him with something)
b) a focus on PvE (grinding fetch quests until you're mighty)
c) standard fantasy races or classes (please do something new)

That, of course, is totally outside the point, but I don't think it's too much to ask, really.

And I think it's pretty obvious how this applies to roleplaying games, which tend to be pretty good about it (it being the resolution systems, that is). There has been no successful roleplaying game in which the resolution system is uninteresting and cumbersome. There has been no successful roleplaying game in which success can be guaranteed by superior gear and levels to the point where most challenges can be rendered moot (until recently, anyways.)

I guess all I'm saying is keep this post in mind when somebody claims to be "inspired" by MMOs, and feel free to shudder a little or throw up in your mouth. Most modern MMOs are fetishistic rehashes of concepts that have been bastardized, cannibalized, and misunderstood by computer games in a bizarre feedback loop (that I might get to talking about later). There's no reason to bring them into computer games.






Sorry about the post, I've been drinking beer again.

D&D as a Party Game

If you're wondering, yes, it works swimmingly, and I heartily recommend it to everybody.

This (generally minus the character shuffling, although sometimes with it) is how I've been running games for the past five years or so, and it's worked great every single time.

Seriously, go do it. I didn't even know that it was uncommon until I saw the unusually enthusiastic response Commodore Rients got from it. Good stuff, guys.




I know it's a short post but you have no idea how out of it I feel.

The Magus

This is kind of cool: http://www.sacred-texts.com/grim/magus/

A link to The Magus (by Francis Barrett) reproduced entirely via hyperlinks and web-pages and all that jazz. Although it's a little late to be applied to the medieval era most of us seem to be playing around in, it's still pretty interesting reading, if you're into esoteric stuff.