2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 1 (catchup)

While I have technically missed the start of the 2022 Character Creation Challenge, I'm not so far behind to make catching up impossible.

So here is PC 1, for the B/X game, because I do love that ruleset.

3d6 down the line; according to the rules, this PC qualifies for Dwarf, Elf, Fighter, Halfling, and Thief, with Prime Requisite xp bonuses further narrowing options to Dwarf (+10%), Fighter (+10%), Halfling (+10%), and Thief (+5%).  As an xp-lover, that still leaves me with three options, so I'll dice for class - and Dwarf it is.

Meet Snorri Ironfoot the Dwarven Veteran, Lawful Dwarf 1

S 16  +2 to hit, damage, and open doors

I 11 reads and writes native languages

W 11 normal magic-based saving throws

D 13 +1 to hit with missile weapons, -1 AC adjustment, +1 initiative adjustment

C 12 no adjustment to hit points

Ch 7 -1 adjustment to reactions, 3 maximum retainers, retainer morale is 6

Current XP: 0      XP needed for next level: 2200

AC 3

HP 6

Equipment: chainmail and shield, axe, crossbow, standard adventuring gear, a fancy top hat

Goal(s): to found his own clanhold, die gloriously, sample new root vegetables and mushrooms

Flaw(s): trusts people with beards, distrusts beardless people

This being a BX PC, I would be remiss to not use this excellent starting headgear table from BX Blackrazor, and if this were a home game, I would also use this excellent zodiac signs table from New Big Dragon Games (Snorri is a Cancer, btw).

 

MtG Monday: Away Decks

It has been some time since my last MtG post, and for good reason: I play and think about this game far less than I do DnD and fantasy roleplaying games in general.

Still, I got to play a few games with the Ohio group over Christmas Break.  It was fun, mostly because old friends were there, from my college days of gaming.  We shared lots of laughter, but only four games: a 4-player, a 4-player, a 6-player, and an 8-player game; three with an 'Ohio' deck, and one with a borrowed and untampered with Dragon Commander precon.  I died at the helm of the dragons, but took some players with me.

Finding fitting MtG art can be difficult, so this will have to do.

I leave decks in Ohio: several 60-ish cards at my brothers, and a pair of larger decks at G's house.  This makes flying home a bit lighter, and lets my decks see play, even if I am not there (to include a monoblack bit of nastiness that has migrated to Columbus and reportedly dominates multiplayer games down there among the Buckeyes).  These deck collections take up little space and provide me something to play with when I visit at home.

As a group, the Ohio players have no set format beyond 'no more than 4 of a kind' in a deck.  This often results in tribal decks or trick decks. Games are won on the backs of creatures or the occasional mass-damage spell (or B's Battle of Wits), as anything else requires more effort at deckbuilding than most of the Ohio group is interested in. For those in the group still buying cards, this often translates to untampered-with preconstructed decks of one stripe or another, with several of the group members keeping between 10 and 60 decks of various sorts available.  All told, winning is nice, but it is more about gathering together over a mutual hobby. 

That said, I managed to win a game, with a Black-Green pseudo-commander deck I had cobbled together a few years back from an Ohio pawnshop.  It is not quite commander because despite being at least 100 cards, it features a few playsets, notably Rampant Growth and Read the Bones - fuel for an otherwise weaker goodstuff deck. 

The box with the BG deck also holds a Blue-Red deck, built along the same lines and at the same time - pawnshop scroungings for a meh counterburnish flying pile of a deck.  I didn't even consider playing it; looking it over at the house, I am convinced this was the proper choice.

Both decks include lots of instants, because the Ohio group likes to interfere with one another's combats, and I know that I wanted to embrace that aspect of Magic, because it is something I rarely do in Alabama. (Anymore, playing Magic is something I rarely do in Alabama).

Now the decks are home to edit (and sleeve).  When complete, I'll return them to Ohio, to dwell at G's house forevermore. 

Writing this out and looking the decks over, I realize two things: one is that I prefer to build Commander decks and two is that the box I'm using will hold three decks, so one more is on the plate.

With three decks, I can use all five colors.  The decision point is how to go about it.  I know the BG deck is staying because it works.  I am torn between keeping the UR deck, but rebuilding it from the ground up and adding a monowhite deck, or going Blue-White and a monored deck.  

Frankly, I'm leaning towards the latter, because I happen to have most of a monored Commander deck set aside that will never be finished, otherwise.  Also, UW decks build themselves, especially decks involving flying.  None will be reliant on the Commander being in play, so each of the decks are just thematic goodstuff.

Which is helpful, because I know I will be buying singles as well as sleeves.  Hopefully, I won't spend too much between the three decks (beyond Dragonshield sleeves at nearly $12 for 100).

Some singles I know I'll need involve Monarch.  The games up north are only duels at the end, so Monarch will be fun.  

One thing for certain is that all three decks will be heavy on evasion and support, and light on tricks and rules abuses. I'm actually excited to build. 

As for the game I won, Wormwood Dryad (with Loxodon Warhammer equipped) served admirably, keeping me in play and eventually winning the game.  So both cards are staying.

Why no one killed it is beyond me.

 

OA Family Backgrounds and Honor

Free time means delving into various books on my shelves, books containing rules and such that I intend to one day use.

In the case of this post, I suspect this might be the only time I use these, but still, it will be fun.

The AD&D Oriental Adventures hardcover contains several interesting bits, notably the chapters on Families, Clans, and Caste (p31-34), Honor (p35-36), and Events and Encounters (p107-114).  The last one is ideal for generating calendar events in the campaign world, broken down by year, month, and daily events. It reminds me heavily of the Battletech charts in ... one of the books.

Regardless, I want to play around with the first two chapters mentioned, so here are a handful of backgrounds using those tables, because rainy mornings are ideal for rolling dice and theorycrafting.

Since determining starting personal honor requires knowing the PC's lowest characteristic, I rolled them up using 4d6 drop lowest, then arranged to meet class requirements (pretty stringent requirements for several of them); furthermore, Comeliness is part of the stats for OA, and that roll is affected by Charisma score.  

All sample PCs are human, all names come from the OA name generator in Dragon #121 (which also includes a great article on the various lotus powders, for those wanting some drugs in their campaign).

Dragon #121 cover art by Jim Holloway

Note that some of the PC honor entries read X or Y.  This is because I rolled up families for all of these folk.  If a PC in OA has no family, they instead get a class-based bonus to starting honor (the higher number of the two), but lose ALL ancestry and birthright.  Personally, I would make the family-related things integral to a game, so would likely disallow loners. 

Miki Moroe, Samurai 1 - S15 D8 C14 I14 W13 Ch7 Co13 

10th rank; family honor: 15; PC honor: 22

ancestry: ancestral feud, none, land modest farm, none, common bloodline; birthright: none, none, none, none

Oshikoji Nagachika, Samurai 2 - S15 D9 C15 I14 W13 Ch6 Co10 

8th rank; family honor: 11; PC honor 19

ancestry: curse, none, small estate, none, common bloodline, none, famous holy man; birthright: none, none, none, weapon of quality, none, none

Wada Kauesue, Samurai 3 - S16 D10 C13 I15 W13 Ch18 Co17 

7th rank; family honor: 40; PC honor 52

ancestry: none, merchant fleet, ancestral feud, land in small town, none, ancestral alliance, ancestral feud; birthright: 2d6 cash strings, 2d6 cash strings, none, none, weapon of quality, none, none

Serizawa Yoshiyasu, Kensai - S15 D15 C13 I10 W14 Ch12 Co15 

middle class; family honor: 10; PC honor: 45 or 20

ancestry: land small farm; birthright: none, none

Yuasa Issai Bushi - S15 D16 C13 I12 W12 Ch9 Co10 

upper middle class; family honor: 16; PC honor: 37 or 27

ancestry: none, land in small town; birthright: property share, none

Tachibana Tampaku, Wu Jen - S9 D16 C13 I18 W15 Ch12 Co12 

upper middle class; family honor: 1; PC honor 25 or 10

ancestry: criminal, land in small town; birthright: none, none

Miruanosuke Keisai, Ninja - S9 D18 C10 I17 W12 Ch16 Co15 

upper class; family honor: 29; PC honor: 43

ancestry: small castle, none, land in large town, none; birthright: d4 horses, armor of quality, armor of quality

NOTE: ninja must split classes, so doing the math, I went with wu jen.

Table 38 is an interesting one, dictating which dice and how many are rolled on follow-up tables.

Table 39 is the first follow-up table; Table 38 tells what size die and how many times to roll it.  PCs do not start owning any of the results on this table, but living family NPCs do.

Table 40 is the second table; Table 38 tells us which die to roll and how many of them.  These are bonus items the PC may start the game with.

Using the above information, I can build quite the background for each of the PCs, but to be honest, the ones that intrigue me the most are the ninja and samurai 3; their Comeliness scores potentially make things more interesting, but to use them properly, I would need to know the wisdom scores of people checking them out, which sounds way too fiddly and math-related for my tastes.  Still, a smitten npc is almost a free henchmen, as near as I can tell from reading.  Having never actually used Comeliness, I cannot speak from experience.

All told, if I (or someone else) were to rework the tables to make it applicable to mainstream 5e (or other) DnD games, I think it could result in some pretty nifty PC backgrounds without going over the top.

Are You Experienced?

Milestone leveling vs Experience Point (xp) leveling always makes for a long comment chain in the various FB DnD groups I participate in.  

Both sides have their stalwarts, with a few posters using both methods in well-explained ways.

As might be imagined, I am firmly in the xp camp, as I see xp as the carrot and stick of player behavior.  This is because I believe most players view leveling as 'winning' in an RPG, so having a stated list of ways to gain (and not gain) xp drives how players - through PCs and in a more meta sense - act during play.  

With that in mind, here is an excerpt from my House Rules document, regarding how I award xp.  

Enjoy.

Dave Trampier, AD&D Core Book (cannot recall which one of the three)

The chief means to gain experience points (xp) is through returning lost treasures to civilization, on a 1gp = 1xp ratio, and then spending it (Dragon Magazine #10).  “Only special expenditures reflecting the characteristics of a character class count toward experience.  Funds spent for general maintenance, upkeep, advertisement, equipment, and hireling salaries yield NO experience.”  That said, here are a few options for this spending:

Tithing/sacrificing to your church (sufficiently large donations may bring a boon if the sacrifice is impressive enough); philanthropy; research (spell, item, or history); clan hoards (PCs deposit into the clan hoard, but cannot withdraw from it); carousing (ala’ Jeff’s Gameblog).  

Carousing Rules: Spend d6 x 100gp to earn that many XP.  Then save versus Poison or roll on the Carousing Mishaps table below.  If you roll more money than you have on hand you now owe the difference to some sort of criminal unless another PC can cover your expenses.  The DM has the d20 Carousing Mishaps table.

You also earn 1 xp for every 1 gp you spend on a hireling's equipment.

End-of-session MVP (as determined by participating players) gets a bonus 250xp. 

Players can provide in-character notes (like a journal or diary) for at least 100xp per entry (one entry per PC per session).  Between sessions is a fine time to write them up.  

This handy XP chart from RIFTS applies to my game, as well:

Note that I cannot tell you which book, specifically, because I came across this chart as an independent entity in a FB discussion about xp.  Which is a shame, because I want to know the quotable quotations hinted at below it.

Exploring for its own sake, outdoors - 10 XP for each hex on the map visited, and 150 XP for uncovering adventure sites. In addition, exploration and discovery of certain physical locations (on this plane and others) provides participating members a one-time variable bonus the first time they arrive there and witness the location.  Depending on location, between 100xp and 10,000xp can be gained – the more distant and wondrous (or decadent), the more it is worth.

Exploring for its own sake, dungeon - ‘Experience points for a dungeon are granted based on how many rooms you had previously explored for the first time in this delve. The first new room might be worth 0xp, the second 10xp, the third an additional 30, the fourth an additional 60. This leads characters to constantly risk defeat by wanting one more room since leaving the dungeon to rest will reset the XP clock as it were. Trying to make it through that 13th room (which may be empty) is worth 780xp now or 0 if they return to the surface to rest.’ (from Neoclassical Geek Revival) 

In memoriam - This requires at least 24 hours and something cool like a big-ass funeral pyre, the raising of a burial mound, or a funeral ship floated down the river. The corpse must be armed and armored for combat, as appropriate to the class of the character. Each party member may donate up to 100gp times the level of the stiff as additional grave goods, the amount being spent is converted to bonus XP for the donor. Each party member may also donate one magic item to the grave. Scrolls, potions, and other one-shot items net a bonus of 250xp, while more permanent items get you 1,000xp. Magic items that would have been unusable by the deceased do not count (from Jeff’s Gameblog).  Returning later to loot the donated goods nets an XP penalty of equal value, and likely an undead former ally, divine curse, or the like.

Magic Item Use - using up the one-shot items and limited use items collected over adventures gains you 100 XP per item used up this way; note that said usage MUST be pertinent to the situation at hand. So chugging potions back-to-back-to-back not only nets a roll on the potion miscibility table (from the AD&D DMG), but also is worth 0 XP unless you make use of what magics the potions offer.

Jim Holloway art, date and title unknown, but I recognize his style.  No doubt these intrepid adventurers are seeking to cash in on the Exploring Places xp.

That's it, so far. The formatting needs cleaned up, but reading between the lines, you have a game focused on exploration, treasure recovery and spending, problem solving, and a high casualty rate.

The only xp awarded for combat are small amounts for 'killing or subduing' actual threats (the bottom of the RIFTS chart), which implies things that pose a threat to the PCs beyond self-defense. From experience, this keeps PCs from fighting everything they come across (as does my refusal to try and balance combats - you want to beard a dragon in its den, I will facilitate your desire, then I will facilitate your rolling up new PCs).

Comments are most welcome.

EDIT: others' posts that influence my thinking on experience points:

Blog of Holding

Angry GM

Dungeon of Signs

From Whence Did This Come?

There are few ways for PCs to suddenly end up with magic items, chiefly the Sun and Key cards from the Deck of Many Things, as well as Wishes.

On occasion, magic items come from watery tarts.

Between my game world's lazy magic and my desire for interesting lives for the PCs through unintended consequences, I came up with this short table to determine who most recently laid claim to the shiny new magic item now magically appearing in PC hands - if only to have a rough idea of what, if anything, will be coming to take it back.  

So a table for recovery team is due, as well.

1. A ruler: local, regional, continental, world.  Friendly, Neutral, or Enemy to PCs.

2. An adventurer: local, regional, world-known, planar; paladin, wizard, cleric, bard

3. A monster: dragon, manticore, beholder, sphinx, rakshasa, giant clan

4. A tomb: recent (1-100 years), old (100-400 years), ancient (401+ years); vampire, mummy lord, lich, ghost

5. A temple: the PC's faith, the PC cleric's faith, an outlawed faith, a cult, opposing faith of PC, allied faith of PC

6. A private citizen: merchant, noble (landless and/or nonruling), guild, other organization

Recovery Team

1. Professional adventurers: lower level than PC, same level as PC, high level than PC

2. Bounty Hunters: any number of single and mixed groups that are as likely to work together as against one another.

3. Personal Guards: professionals of the PC's level, under a competent leader (and trusted henchman) of higher than PC level.

4. Otherworldly Minions: fiend, invisible stalker, celestial, or something in-between

5. Monstrous Minions: gargoyles, humanoid war party, lycanthropes, living spell (bigby's hand, most likely).

6. The Owner Themselves: alone or with retinue

It goes without saying that most, if not all, such items gained through magic are unique, so are easily scryed and perhaps recognized.  With that in mind, how will the PCs react when the Wish spell brings them a weapon they not only can use, but need for their current quest - a weapon that the PCs recognize as the Sword of the King's Champion?  

Building Skara Brae

Being generally behind the power-curve, yet now having this blog to spur me creatively, I have started populating Skara Brae with a variety of people, places, and perhaps, plots.    This, plus a few weeks off leave me with an end-of-year project.

Island, Richard Wright, 2012

For many NPCs, I hope for the players to take advantage of the 'I know a guy' rule, but failing that, some standard sorts and types are necessary to fill in the spaces.  If nothing else, Garth and Roscoe will be around.

Happily, I recently purchased the d30 Sandbox Companion from New Big Dragon Games and I want to use it alongside my hard copies of Midkemia's Cities, Judges Guild's Ready Ref Sheets, Atlas Games' Crime and Punishment, and Mystic Eye Games' Foul Locales: Urban Blight and Behind the Gates.  In addition are the pdfs of all the Catalyst Citybooks, to go with my hardcopy of Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker and Atlas Games' Backdrops.

This is all in addition to several fantasy city books of varying sizes, in both print and pdf (Hollowfaust is hands down my favorite): The Town of Kalas, the Citystate of the Invincible Overlord, Bluffside, Liberty from the City Quarters Series (a shame they never finished it), Waterdeep: City of Splendors, Raven's Bluff, Lankhmar, Mithril, Minas Tirith, Laketown, Freeport, Marchion, and the Free City of Greyhawk, among others.

City of Shadows, Tom Wanerstrand, 1993

Despite all of these resources (and more), I have yet to sit down and hammer out most details of my own Skara Brae.

No longer. 

A city map, if only for a rough visual overview, will be a necessity.  While in the end, I might just use a published map, I feel compelled to at least try and draw out a city on my own.  Inkarnate lends itself to this, as does a blank sheet of paper and a pencil.  But it doesn't need to be the first step.

And it certainly won't be in this post.

All I really know is that Skara Brae is a port city located in a temperate climate.  

Dipping into the earlier-mentioned sources, I know that my city will include:

From the various Catalyst citybooks: Diamond Spider Tavern (I), The Grey Minstrel Inn (I), Skywhite's House of Lavation (I), Larkspur the Leech (I), Kolat's Emporium of Miracles (I), the House of Thelesha Moonscry (I), Bron Arvo's Armory (I), Blades by Tor (I), Trueshaft's Bowyery (I), Red Earth Leatherworks (I), Crunge's Clocktower (I), the Temple of Putrexia (I), Palace of Peaceful Repose (I), the Brass Orchid Tavern (II), the Longtooth Lounge (II), the Gateway (II), the Everpresent Journeywind (II), Ew's Wood and Bone Works (II), the Customs House (II), the Temple of Aroshnavaraparta (II), the Blue Light Gang (II), Artemus the Lucky Sea Captain (II), the Singing Frog Sanctuary (III), Karig the Stalker (III), the Bloodmoon School (III),  the Well of Justice (III),  the Undercity (III), the House of Infinite Dreams (III), Domdaniel's Gate (III), the Bottomless Keg (V), Amarathine's Rest (VI), Greenhargon's Museum (VI), the Reliquarium (VI), the Lost Inn (VI), the Gloriana Theater (VI), Cidryn's Aerial Palladium (VI), Exeter's Antiques Emporium (VI), Feats of Clay (VI), Jasmine's Fine Jewelry (VI), and maybe more, but my eyes hurt from skim-reading.

Of course, names will be changed, but the personalities, maps, and hooks can drive an entire campaign's worth of adventures, without ever leaving the city - so then again, maybe I need to watch how just how much I add or expose to the players. Having a solid depth of names and places allows for an easy(ish) rumor table; Citybook III even has a 'rumor price construction table' on p21 that boils down to how much a person's appearance gets them charged for rumors, but it can be easily ported to other charges.

As the series name suggests, Foul Locales are small set pieces of a sinister nature, which I can connect to the megadungeon and feed through the rumor table.  There are quite a few options I look forward to sprinkling through the city's wards.  Backdrops provides the same, with a less sinister bent.  Between these books, I have adventure-ready locations and scenarios.

I am not a fan of magic item stores, certainly not one-stop-shops, like Wal-Marts for mages.  Instead, in my world, there are item brokers that can both find items for interested parties, as well as gladly take unwanted items off PC hands. Ideally, some such brokers are revealed through players using the I Know a Guy houserule. The chief brokers are the Favarro family, but there are a variety of others that specialize in various types of items:  

Kargreave the Armorer (p23), Dallo the Clothier (p31), Blaatchep the Cursemonger (p38), Berlow the Healer (p47), Renaida the Jeweler (p52), Zebulon (p59), Blind Bartolomeus the Fence (p70), Zyle the Transporter (p81), Arlon the Armsman (p87), and Eliaz the Necromancer (p102) from GURPS Magic Items I.  

Wat Oakenson the Ranger (p12), Nangres Thornbeard the Armorer (p20), Tuneful Loquinon the Bard (p27), Hieronymous Bibliophilus the Bookseller (p34), Madame Fleuria d'Estille the Socialite (p43), Poponax the Vile Clown (p51), Lazy Nambo the Somnambulent (p58), Lianril Healthgiver (p67), Theron the Hierophant (p72), Somber Thul the Gaunt (p79), Lalonica the Huntress (p82), Holdarion the Sage (p88),  Loughlin Keymaker the Locksmith (p94), Old Friedrich the Puppeteer  (p99), Journeymaster Warnow the Wanderer (p106), Krolt the Swordsmith (p112), and Archimagus Ulrikh (p120) from GURPS Magic Items II.  

Knowing these sorts of brokers are in Skara Brae helps dictates the city quarters, or wards, as there will assuredly be more than four themed areas.  Just reading through the names makes me realize that Skara Brae will have at least a few humanoids dwelling among the mostly human population.  I'm looking forward to my final city.  

 

That Wasn't Supposed to Happen!

There is an adage in fiction writing, about how every solution should be the start (or aggravation) of one or more other problems for the protagonist.

This is also a key takeaway from the book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck - every solution is another beginning of a new problem for regular folks like you and I.

Or a challenge, depending on how optimistic or pessimistic you might be. 

Now, some folks may be worried that this isn't realistic, or that it is somehow unfair for the PCs to be able to rest on their laurels and reap the rewards of their heroics (or homicidal tendencies or both).

Given that DnD, and other RPGs, are all about pretending to be other people with more ... interesting ... lives, this adage works for these games as well.  After all, challenges and misfortunes propel adventurers into additional adventures, which is what defines their job descriptions, so it works.

Nobody wants to roleplay this game.  Will McLean, AD&D DMG, 1979.

There are several ways to approach or address this method of DMing, highlighted here:

Embrace the pillar of improv known as 'yes, and...' and adding this phrase to your DMing toolkit will serve well in demonstrating how player choices impact the world.

Monkeypawing (from here) wishes is perhaps the most commonly seen form of this advice, and as such, is often ridiculed as being 'adversarial DMing.'  Yet it isn't, or shouldn't be - unless the wish comes from some sort of fiendish or other ill-natured source, and then the PC (and player!) should know better.

My wife's favorite idiom, 'The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions' applies to the do-gooding PCs out saving the world, rescuing the helpless, and generally making life better for those less fortunate.  Don't let this stop you (or PCs) from doing Good and Right things, just be aware that the next rule will rear its head, more often than not.

The Law of Unintended Consequences is an economic theory that also applies to everything else that humans (and the other races/species commonly encountered in RPGs) do, to include doing nothing, but especially actions committed and words spoken in the heat of the moment.

I first learned the acronym TANSTAAFL from Robert A. Heinlein's Notebooks of Lazarus Long (a character that is not exactly an immortal, just quite long-lived).  It turns out that this is another economics theory (based around opportunity costs) that pertains to all other human (and other) activities.  

Will McLean, AD&D DMG 1979

All this talk of economics has me thinking of Adam Smith's Invisible Hand and how it might rival the various Bigby's Hand spells, given how it impacts the local economies.

Then again, instead of a spell, perhaps the Invisible Hand might be better as a monster of some sort.

Just not the kind of Invisible Hand that fudges dice rolls.

What is your favorite game-related unintended consequence?