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).

 

2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 31

This is it, the last entry for this year's Character Creation Challenge.  It's even on time!

I had considered writing up a full wizard's guild or magicians academy (The School of the Unseen, with a focus on Enchantment and Illusion magics), but my ambition has left me.

7, 9, 8, 8, 5, 15 - s/he convinces people to die in their name.  No.

15, 6, 7, 7, 10, 11 - another likeable fool. No

5, 13, 11, 11, 11, 8 - an irascible man, who rages incessantly at the injustice of the cruel dice of fate and the games that the gods play with mortals, using us as mere pawns. Yes, yes, indeed.

Not my tattoo (I opted for Tom Servo instead of a wizard), but this is how I picture Mephedrone.

Mephedrone the Apoplectic, C Magic-User 1

S 5 - -2 to hit, damage, open doors

I 13 - reads and writes native language, plus one more

W 11 - none

D 11 - none

C 11 - none

Ch 8 - 3 retainers max, retainer morale 6, -1 adjustment to reactions, 

Current XP: 0       XP required (+5%): 2,501

HP 2

AC 10

Languages Known: Common, Goblin, Orc

Spells Known: 1st- Sleep

Equipment: dagger, light adventurers kit, robe, sandals, a shawl, a permanent snarl and a readiness to rant about anything, hands stained green with the poisons he uses to torture captured clerics.

History and Goals: Mephedrone wants justice against the gods.  He isn't sure how to get it, but that is his goal - determining their games and actively thwarting the gods' plans.  For all his anger and bombast, Mephedrone works well with gangs of humanoids, ambushing other adventurers and taking their things.

Except clerics. Clerics die ... exquisitely.

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No headgear for Mephedrone - he is too weak to wear headgear.  He might make a decent villain or villain's henchman, though.  Opening up an ambush with a sleep spell against a party of 1st and 2nd level B/X PCs kills them just as dead as when those same PCs sleep a band of goblins or orcs.  Turnabout is fair play and all that.

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Megadungeon 2023

A fine link popped up in my FB feed, leading me to Mazirian's Garden and the Megadungeon 2023 challenge, and from there to Win Conditions - a substack by the challenge starter.  From the look of things, it is shaping up to be quite the collection of posts across the internet, to include my own.

Long-time readers may recall that I have already done some megadungeon writing in the past, addressing Overall Contents, Specials, Traps, Random Encounters and Wandering Monsters, and Monsters in general for an incomplete megadungeon. I even wrote some Rumors for it. This #Dungeon23 challenge may end up being the impetus I need to continue that ambitious project.

After all, 365 rooms (one each day of 2023) fills about 3.5 levels of my planned megadungeon, or more likely, 3 levels and one or two sublevels.  Finding folks to play through it with can wait until another day.

I demonstrated back in January that while I can participate in a month-long challenge, it quickly turned into a grind that I assuredly dreaded near the end.  I crossed that Character Creation Challenge finish line, but some of it was not my best work.  Dungeon rooms are substantially smaller, and there is no rule that I have to connect the rooms together, just that I need to write them.

If nothing else, I will be left with a deeper reservoir of ready rooms to dip into as needed.

Be warned, there are likely to be bad jokes, obscure references, homages, and statistically outright lifting (but not intentionally, I promise) scattered about my chambers, but that is half the fun. 

To get folks in the proper mindset, here are Philotomy's musings on the Dungeon as the Mythic Underworld, the Greyhawk Grognard addressing Megadungeon-based Game Mechanics and what that implies for a proper megadungeon, as well as some inspirational art.

Dave Trampier, from the AD&D Players Handbook

I look forward to seeing what folks dream up, as well as my own dreamings.  Join us!

2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 11

It's time to branch out, but still not another T2K PC. Instead, I'm looking at GURPS Dungeon Fantasy.  After all, I enjoy the blog Dungeon Fantastic enough that I went and bought the boxed set and a few extra books, besides.

I may as well some use out of them. 

As the box says, Dungeon Fantasy is powered by GURPS, so there is much crossover with the basic GURPS game.  Unlike the utter freedom of a typical GURPS PC, Dungeon Fantasy has helpfully grouped various advantages, disadvantages, and such together so that folks coming over from DnD can still have a 'class' that isn't quite a class. In Dungeon Fantasy, though, they're called Professions.

Here's a review that explains all this far, far better than I can hope to do.

As the video review said, each Profession contains a menu of options.  My appetite tonight is for a Swashbuckler, ala' Cyrano de Bergerac.  Numbers in parentheses are how many character points it costs.

Le Petomane, Swashbuckler

Attributes:  ST 11 (10); DX 15 (100); IQ 10 (0); HT 13 (30).

Secondary Characteristics: Damage 1d-1/1d+1; BL 24lbs; HP 11 (0); Will 10 (0); Per 10 (0); FP 13 (0); Basic Speed 7.00 (0); Basic Move 7 (0).

Advantages: Combat Reflexes (15); Enhanced Parry 1 (weapon skill of choice) (5); Luck (15); Weapon Bond (any starting weapon) (1); and Weapon Master (weapon of choice) (20).  Plus 60 extra points from a large list: Rapier Wit (5), Every One's a Critical (15), Springing Attack (10), Great Void (10), ST+2 (10/level)

Disadvantages: -15 from this list: Outlaw's Code of Honor (-5), Never Refuse a Challenge to Combat (-10); -35 from this list: Compulsive Spending (-5), Impulsiveness (-10), Overconfidence (-5), Sense of Duty (adventuring companions) (-5), Gregarious (-10)

Skills: Choose one: Rapier-20 (20), Fast Draw (rapier)-17 (2); All of these: Acrobatics-15 (4), Brawling-16 (2), Carousing-13 (1), Jumping-15 (1), Savoir-Faire-11 (2), Stealth-14 (1), Thrown Weapon (knife)-16 (2), Wrestling-15 (2).  Then choose seven: Fast-Talk-9 (1), First Aid-10 (1), Gambling-9 (1), Hiking-12 (1), Intimidation-9 (1), Lasso-14 (1), Search-9 (1)

Equipment: rapier, several throwing knives, fancy clothing, magnificent feathered hat, loaded dice, normal dice, deck of marked cards, traveler's clothing, adventurer's pack, extra wineskins

That's everything mechanical.  To be honest, I would prefer someone else to guide me through a few combats to learn the GURPS way of doing things, but beyond that, PC creation was fairly simple.  Granted, if I took the time to read the various advantages/disadvantages instead of grabbing things that sound good (and/or fitting), it would have taken longer.  

All things considered, this PC lacks Cyrano's noble purpose, but I think captures his skill both with rapier and rapier wit.  If I played this PC for a game, I would channel Cyrano and the various Musketeers from the Disney version of the film - something gamers should watch on principle. 

Then again, knowing myself, I would lean heavily on puns, Monty Python references, and fart jokes, with the latter befitting Le Petomane's name.

2022 Character Creation Challenge - Summary

It is finished.  31 PCs of various sorts, mostly wizards and their ilk.  The astute among my two regular readers will see that some of them (near the beginning and the end) did not fall on their actual dates, with the 25th being a particular victim of procrastination.

Lessons Learned

My favorite PCs to roll up are magic-users of the AD&D nature, at least partially because I enjoy rolling the random starter spells.  That said, the B/X Headgear chart is fun in a more general sense.

Magic cards and Scryfall.com are an excellent source of art.  Even if I rarely play Magic anymore, it is still an influence on my game time - which is something I consider this blog.

This month solidifies my view that faster (shorter) character generation games are better than games with long ones, although familiarity with systems may leave me biased.  My plans to explore some other games (Chill!, Gangbusters, Dark Conspiracies, Ars Magica) were scuttled due to the time it takes to even craft a PC, let alone write up all the details on the character sheet. 

I have zero qualms regarding joke names or allusions to reality - in the end, the G in RPG is Game, a game for players in the real world.  The only simple methods I didn't use were my name spelled backwards or an anagram of my first and last names.

Dice-rolling apps are a godsend - for mass-PC production, at least. Discord's Avrae does Method I rolling even better than my dice app.  If you use Discord for your gaming, give Avrae a try and thank me later.  

If only for the insult generator (which reminds me of this insult generator).

Despite all of this technology making life better, I prefer the clatter of actual dice, though.

All things considered, I won't be participating in this challenge again.  The impetus to write every day was grand, but things fell apart near the end (at least partially because all my coworkers ended up with COVID, leaving me the sole person in the office), resulting in a rushed series of B/X PCs.  Not that there is anything wrong with such PCs or the B/X ruleset, mind you. Still, all this PC-making leaves me jonesing for a game, either as a player or DM.

So I reckon that after today, I'll be back to my more sporadic posting schedule.

2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 7

I promise I was gonna do another T2K character - a mechanic nicknamed Tough Nuts, and yes, I served with a Motor Sergeant who called EVERYONE that he outranked Tough Nuts.  A good mechanic, a good man.

My intent was to make a character sheet for Tough Nuts, but my first attempt was discouraging.

Since its a Friday night and I am in my cups listening to Tom Waits, some form of bard seems appropriate. (EDIT - I fell asleep before finishing and posting this PC.)

Or perhaps a 5e Kenku - the perfect race for trolling, with their 'curse' of limited speech patterns - that only speaks in Tom Waits lyrics.  Yes, let's do that.  It seems fitting, after all.

Blast! There are several guides and generators for Kenku that don't actually deal with the mechanics, which is the whole point of a generator - goals and backgrounds are easy, compared to math.

I guess I'll roll my own.  4d6 drop lowest for stats: 17, 12, 12, 12, 13, 10; racial bonuses: +2 dex, +1 wis.  I realize that the main reason I dislike newer RPGs is that the PC creation takes so long, so I will stick to level 1 for this wandering birdman. 

Art by carakav on DeviantArt

Tom Waits-for-no-man Kenku Rogue 1

S 12 +1

D 19 +4

C 12 +1

I 13 +1 

W 11 0

Ch 12 +1 

Current XP:  0    XP needed: 301

AC 15

HP 6

Racial Skills: Expert Forgery, Kenku Training (Deception, Stealth), Mimicry, can only speak using Mimicry (the trollish part of this race)

Class Skills: Expertise, Sneak Attack, Thieves Cant

Equipment: leather armor, daggers, rapier, adventurer's kit, writing tools, megaphone, bad liver, broken heart

Tetracube suggests this for a background; after a small amount of editing, it works for me.

Occupation: Wanderer

Trait: I always want to know how things work and what makes people tick.

Flaw: I must have the last word.

Guilty pleasure: The chance to deflate someone's ego.

Became a rogue because: kept questionable company while an impressionable youth; it turns out I am good at deceit and general fuckery.  Cryptic speech patterns perpetuate my mystery.

Appearance: nondescript, even for a kenku.

Values: Live and let live; drawn to a special place

Secret: I know where certain bodies are buried, figuratively and metaphorically. 

While putting this Kenku together, I found several PC generators, but they stick to PHB races.  I imagine that something exists behind a paywall, because it doesn't make sense for it to not exist.

For the record, I am the player content to download one of the WotC pregenerated PCs and use that for a campaign, because it beats doing math.  I'm here to play DnD, and any paper person will do.

2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 16

I learned a new way to name wizardly sorts: take a commercial drug and add an epithet tied to what the drug does.  Examples include Viagra the Aroused and Adderall the Focused.  

So I want to try that out with today's character challenge.  AD&D and Method I should net me something with decent Intelligence and Dexterity scores.  12, 10, 11, 13, 10, 15 is strike one.  9, 11, 12, 8, 8, 9 is strike two.  6, 12, 9, 15, 13, 14 is strike three.  Sunovabitch.

16, 6, 7, 9, 9, 16 - these virtual dice suck, but it's the first of four sets that meets the 'two 15s' recommendation. I'll randomize this magic-user's level, though: d4+1 works.

Rebecca Guay, Auramancer, WotC 2018

Vyvanse the Calm, Human Magic-User 3

S 6 -  -1 to hit, -150 weight allowance, open doors 1, bend bars/lift gates 0%

I 16 - 5 possible additional languages, can know 8th level spells, 65% to know new spells, 7/11 min/max spells per level

W 9 - none

D 16 - +1 reaction/attacking adjustment, -2 defensive adjustment

C 7 - system shock survival 55%, resurrection survival 60%

Ch 9 - 4 maximum henchmen

Current XP: 6,550        XP required to level: 22,501

HP 10

AC 8

Languages Known: Common, Elf, Giant

Spells Known:

1st- Detect Magic, Feather Fall, Identify, Read Magic, Sleep, Unseen Servant

2nd- Invisibility

Equipment: Ring of Warning, robes, staff, dagger, adventuring gear

Habits: Vyvanse is well aware of her fragility and acts accordingly.  She adventures rather than remains safely in academia because she foolishly prioritized mastering her subjects over making the right connections while at college (7).  Vyvanse will not adventure alone, preferring to go along with several stout fighter sorts to protect her.

Goals: Survive into middle age.  Discover/create magics that enhance her health or increase her survivability.  Lichdom is not off the table.

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Another kind DM granting 5 starting spells (DMG p39), the bonus being a miscellaneous spell.  

The Academic Failure background came from this list at Against the Wicked City.  

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Ring of Warning - this golden band pulses when trouble is near; meaning that its wearer cannot be surprised.  In addition, the wearer can use it to cast Augury once per day, with 90% accuracy and no other material components necessary - just concentration.  In this case, the Ring of Warning heats up for Weal and freezes for Woe.

2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 15

Zounds! 

I almost forgot to write up today's PC!  My plan is to finish out the various '70s and '80s bands as AD&D characters this month, and today is a fine day for another such being.  Since some names fit specific classes better than others, I'll be making use of Method V to ensure I roll up the PC I want to stat up, in this case, a monk.

Method V is almost necessary given the stringent requirements to qualify as a monk: Strength 15, Wisdom 15, Dexterity 15, and Constitution 11.  At least monks automatically meet the PHB recommendation of at least two abilities of 15 or higher.  Monks have no chance for bonus xp, however, no matter how high stats may be.

Ye olde standby table from UA

David Carradine in his role in the TV series Kung-Fu, which I suspect had a large impact on this class.

Iron Butterfly, Superior Master - LN Human Monk 7

S 15 - +200 Weight, Open Doors 1-2, Bend Bars/Lift Gates 7%

I 15 - 4 possible additional languages

W 16 - +2 Magical Attack Adjustment

D 17 - +2 Reaction/Attacking Adjustment, -3 Defensive Adjustment

C 12 - System Shock Survival - 80%, Resurrection Survival - 85%

Ch 14 - 6 henchmen total, +5% Loyalty Base, +10% Reaction Adjustment

Current XP: 111,500         XP until next level: 200,001

HP: 18

AC: 5 and Dex, so 2

Languages Known: Common, Draconic, Elf, 

Class Limitations: must be Lawful; no armor allowed; 2 magic weapons, 3 magic others at any time; limited wealth - surplus MUST go to a religious institution; only specific weapons, rings, and miscellaneous magic allowed; no Strength hit/damage bonuses

Class Skills: chance to stun per open hand hit; chance to kill per open hand hit; deflect nonmagical missiles; saves vs damage = 0 damage; 22% chance to be surprised; thief skills (see below) as thief of same level; can fall 30' with no damage if within 4' of a wall; speak with animals (as druid); mask mind from ESP - ESP works 24% of time; immune to disease and haste/slow spells; feign death (14 turns); heal self d4+1 1/day; monk move 21/rd; monk open hand attacks 3/2 rds; monk open hand damage 2d4+1

Open Locks: 52%    

Find/Remove Traps:  50%    

Move Silently: 55%    

Hide in Shadows: 43%   

Hear Noise: 25%    

Climb Walls: 94%

Equipment: robes, tattoos, adventurer's kit, Wraps of the Master.

Goals: to find the Garden of Edah, wherein dwells one of the Masters of Dragons (Red, Green, or White), in order to defeat him/her and become the Master of Dragons himself; keep ally Mott the Hoople from doing anything too stupid; travel the world dispensing justice as needed.

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Wraps of the Master: these fist wraps are of white cloth with runes of silvered thread running along them.  These wraps cover the palms, fingers, and the wrists of the wearer.  These wraps allow the wearer to strike beings that require magic to hit, and also provide negative plane protection so that undead can be punched with impunity.

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Observation: as punishment for rolling up high stats, a player has to record lots of stuff on their character sheet.  Seems fair.  

I like how Monks (and Druids) have to seek out and challenge higher-level Monks (and Druids) in order to level up.  I haven't actually played through this process, but I imagine it is a whole new dynamic, one that could make games quite entertaining if applied across the board as a house rule.  

The magic item restrictions make sense, given the vague idea of monks holding vows of poverty.  I wonder if this is a proto-attunement thing, for the 5e readers among my three regulars.

2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 20

Three guesses as to what character type this is gonna be.  I'll wait.

To shake things up, though, this will be a B/X Magic-User.  As such, it is 3d6 down the line, and I will keep rolling sets until I get a high Intelligence.

11, 11, 9, 12, 11, 3

7, 13, 12, 15, 11, 8

14, 17, 7, 9, 15, 10

12, 14, 11, 13, 14, 11

6, 10, 12, 13, 13, 6

8, 5, 12, 10, 13, 10

11, 8, 10, 6, 15, 9

15, 10, 13, 8, 12, 11

15, 8, 12, 8, 11, 13

6, 8, 14, 10, 11, 14

12, 11, 14, 10, 10, 12

10, 13, 11, 12, 10, 11

Twelve sets of abilities, both because I had forgotten how little the ability scores affect PCs in B/X and I got caught up rolling dice, mostly the latter.  I suspected the third set would be the best for my purposes, and I wasn't wrong.  The Intelligent, yet incautious and downright foolish Magic-User that relies on brute force and ignorance when his spells won't carry the day, and depending on which spells are known (randomly determined), that might prove to be quite often.

Technically, B/X has a method to adjust ability Prime Requisite scores before play, at a rather specific 2-for-1 cost, so I could conceivably drop the Strength score to 12 to raise my Intelligence to 18, but why?  All I get out of the deal is knowing another language, as 17 already qualifies me for +10% on the Prime Requisite table. 

Over at Doomslakers! there is a lovely table of potential wizard names (amid many other lovely random tables) and I cannot pass up an excuse to use it.

Starting with a name might seem backwards, but Pristinio the Delicious just cries out for creation!

Cinder Seer, by Donato Giancola, WotC (Urza's Destiny)

Pristinio the Delicious, Medium, N Magic-User 1

S 14 +1 to hit, damage, open doors

I 17 literate, +2 languages

W 7 -1 on magic-based saves

D 9 none

C 15 +1 hit points per die

Ch 10 4 max retainers, retainer morale 7

Current XP 0     XP until next level: 2,501

HP 4

AC 10

Languages Known:  Common, Gnome, Orc

Spells Known: Sleep 

Equipment: staff, dagger, adventurer's kit, adventuring clothes (not a robe), pipe, tobacco

Personality/Habits: Hits the pipe regularly in the belief it makes him unpalatable to monsters (in reality it is making him taste smoked). When magic is gone or won't obviously work, will happily charge in swinging his staff and bellowing a battle-cry.  In a tavern, Pristinio leaves magic and staff alone, swinging with fists, instead.  After a brawl, is likely to buy drinks for everyone.  Despite his love of carousing and brawling, Pristinio does enjoy his quiet.

Goals: to not be eaten; to acquire more spells; to find a better tobacco; to become a tobacco farmer, with a plantation all his own.

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Spell acquisition in B/X RAW is rough: a first level character will only have one spell (a first level spell) in the spellbook.  Furthermore, either the DM or player gets to choose the starting spell, but from then on, it is player's choice as to which one spell they learn with each level.   Scrolls still require Read Magic to read, as well as a good light source.  This strongly implies that the spell gained at 2nd level should be Read Magic.

Presuming player choice of starting spell, there are only two of the twelve worth considering: Charm Person and Sleep.  It all depends on if the magic-user player wants servants or not, because Charm Person can last up to a month on creatures with Intelligence scores of 3-8.

B/X also uses race-as-class, something that I would love to see reworked (and am actually slowly working on) so that each nonhuman race is essentially a multiclass PC with extra abilities (this line of thinking stems from this post at Brain Leakage).  A fine example is the Elf as fighter/magic-user.  This is doubly useful because B/X doesn't allow multiclassing.  

Beyond bonus XP in the Prime Requisite, ability scores provide little in the way of bonus - unlike newer games, from AD&D through 5e.  Still, I am conditioned to prefer higher numbers, so here we are.

Most of the sets of abilities I rolled are serviceable characters, except maybe the first one, but even that 3 in Charisma can be mitigated by not letting that PC speak.  Ever.

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2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 9

AD&D saw the release of several hardbacks before 2e came into being.  One of which was the first Unearthed Arcana.

The book itself is a mix of new things and compiled Dragon magazine articles. Among many other ideas and rules (several of which are now canon or at least sacred cows in DnD rulesets, although the contents of Appendix T - The Nomenclature of Polearms has mostly fallen to the wayside) was a new method to roll up ability scores and several new PC classes: Barbarian, Cavalier, and Thief-Acrobat.

Writing this out, I suspect that the writers of the DnD cartoon might have been using UA as a resource, as Diana the Acrobat, Bobby the Barbarian, and Eric the Cavalier suggest.

From the best car advertisement, ever.  Take a few moments to watch it. 

Regardless, I wanted to try out that 'new' method, Method V (p74).  The idea behind it is that the PC class comes first, because that dictates how many dice are rolled.  Note the first sentence: This method can only be used to create human player characters. 

Let's get some good use of the UA with a Human Barbarian.  According to the Method V chart, I roll the following dice:

Strength 9, Intelligence 3, Wisdom 5, Dexterity 7, Constitution 8, Charisma 6, and Comeliness 4.

Then I keep the best three of each set.  This should be amusing.

S18, I11, W13, D17, C15, Ch13, Co18   An 18 Strength means percentile dice! S18/06 

That 18 in Comeliness means more work for the DM! Yay!

+18 to +21: The beauty of the character will cause heads to turn and hearts to race.  Reaction for initial contact is at a percent equal to 150% of Comeliness score.  Individuals of the opposite sex will be affected as if under a fascinate spell unless their wisdom excess two-thirds of the character's comeliness total.  Individuals of the same sex will do likewise unless wisdom totals at least 50% of the other character's Comeliness score.  Rejection of harsh nature can cause the individual rejected to have a reaction as if the character had a negative Comeliness of half the actual (positive) score.

Let it stand that while I love many old rules, Comeliness is not one of them. 

It appears that this Barbarian walked right out of a Harlequin novel and into a DnD game.  So much for my plan to stat up Bobby the Barbarian... unless we pretend the kids never got home and instead grew to adulthood in DnD-land.  Nah, we'll go with Harlequin-Barbarian.

not my work; creator and/or painter unknown to me

Hrothgar the Barbarian, CG Human Barbarian 2

S 18/06 - +1 hit, +3 damage, +1,000 weight, open doors 1-3, bend bars/lift gates 20%

I 11 - 2 possible additional languages 

W 13 - none

D 17 - +2 reaction/missile attacks, -3 defensive adjustment

C 15 - +1 hp per level, System Shock Survival 91%, Resurrection Survival 94%

Ch 13 - 5 henchmen max, +5% reaction adjustment

Co 18 - see earlier comments

Current XP:  7,500         XP needed for next level: 12,001

AC 3

HP 24

Languages Known: Common, Orc, Tribal 

Class Skills: earn XP for destroying magic items, attacks count as magical, saving throw bonuses, climb cliffs and trees, hide in natural surroundings, surprise, back protection, leaping and springing, detect illusion, detect magic, leadership, survival (conditional), first aid (conditional), outdoor craft (conditional), tracking (conditional), one or more of several background-dependent skills.   Can associate freely with clerics (2nd level ability).

Equipment: furs, chain shirt, shield, winged helm, dagger (for eating), large battle axe (for fighting and breaking things), adventurer's kit

Goal: see the world, found a tribe, loot and raze the decadent and debauched cities of the southlands

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Note that the Barbarian has several level-based restrictions on magic items and associating with magic using sorts.  

A quick glance at this chart means that a barbarian PC is not going to mesh well with the typical adventuring party until at least level 6.  That said, the same barbarian PC might be an excellent choice for a solo campaign.  Robert E. Howard pulled it off, quite well.

In addition, starting at level 8, a barbarian can summon a Barbarian Horde.  There are conditions on this horde regarding where they come from, how long, and composition, much like when Fighters or Clerics build strongholds and attract followers.  The difference is that the barbarian's horde goes back home after several weeks.

I was (and still am) tempted to make Hrothgar 8th level, but then I would feel compelled to flesh out that horde, to include the 6 leveled NPCs that come to assist AND any shamans, witch doctors, or clerics (barbarian tribe depending) that are in the horde.  So that is for another day.

Perhaps.

To write it up properly, I would need to create the culture and terrain from whence this barbarian comes.  I could easily jam it into the Ironguard Campaign, so this may yet happen.

And here I was complaining about how complicated 5e's PCs were with skills and abilities every level.  I apologize.  Tangentally related to Hrothgar is this deep dive on Barbarians through the DnD rulesets.

2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 4

Browsing other posters' contributions to this challenge makes me realize I need to step up my game with the post presentation.  Hopefully, tomorrow will see a change.

Back to AD&D today - there was something about flipping through the PHB's pages that stuck in my mind.  Anyhow, I'm using the same rolling process as on Day 2, and get: 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17.  I don't even have to roll three sets of stats this time.

That 17 means a potential Paladin, depending on other class requirements.  Other requirements are 9, 9, 12, and 13.  This set meets these numeric requirements, so I present to you:

Uriah Heep the Gallant, LG Human Paladin 1 

S 16 +1 damage, +350 weight, open doors 1-3, bend bars/lift gates 10%

I 11 2 additional languages

W 15 +1 saves vs magical attack

D 9 none

C 13 System Shock Survival 85%, Resurrection Survival 90%

Ch 17 max henchmen 10, loyalty base +30%, reaction adjustment +30%

Current XP: 0    XP to next level: 2,751

AC 2

HP 8

Languages Known: Common, Dwarf

Abilities:

Detect Evil 60' distance

+2 to all saving throws

immune to all disease

lay on hands, 2hp/lvl 1/day 

cure disease 1/week

permanent protection from evil 1'' radius

Equipment: plate armor that shines like justice, sword, lance, horse, unwavering sense of right and wrong, standard adventuring gear

Goals: establish a beacon of light in this dark world, through leading by example; eventually lead a crusade against the worst of the world

Flaws: thinks humans are redeemable, so will often try and talk before fighting; will accept surrender and offers of parley, even if suspicious of a trick

Uriah Heep pondering which evil to vanquish next.  Photo from the Armstreet catalogue. 

For the record, I am indeed listening to whichever Uriah Heep songs Alexa is choosing, mostly from the Demons and Wizards album, it seems.  Give it a listen, you won't be disappointed.

2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 3

For Christmas, I got to open and more thoroughly play with the new Twilight 2000 box set from Fria Ligan.  I backed the kickstarter, so have had the pdfs for a few months, but now with books in hand, I feel I can properly roll up a PC.

In all honesty, this challenge may see a few T2K PCs rolled up.  How much individual PCs will be modeled on people I served with over my twelve years is as yet undetermined. 

T2K does provide some fast PCs, archetypes in the rulebook, but it also includes a life path method, and it's the life path method I'll be using here.  21 easy steps to a new PC trapped in Poland.

Darren McMichaels, American, 33 years old, First Lieutenant 

STRENGTH B - D10

Heavy Weapons D - D6

Close Combat

Stamina D - D6

AGILITY B - D10

Driving D - D6

Mobility

Ranged Combat B - D10

INTELLIGENCE B - D10

Recon C - D8

Survival 

Tech 

EMPATHY A - D12

Command D - D6

Persuasion C - D8

Medical Aid

Specialties: Rifleman, Launcher Crew, Linguist, Tactician, Improvised Munitions

Hit Capacity - 5

Stress Capacity - 6

Coolness Under Fire - B

Moral Code - my job is to take care of my soldiers

Big Dream - get soldiers and self back to the states

Small Dream - get a rifle

Buddy - SFC 'Tuff nuts' - the mechanic

How You Met - 

Appearance - tattoos from enlisted days, partial sleeves and chest

Starting Rads - 5

Starting gear - .45 pistol, 4 reloads, night vision goggles, flak jacket, knife, personal medkit

1LT McMichaels enlisted after high school, partially for adventure, mostly to spite his parents.  After two terms, McMichaels mustered out and used the GI Bill for college and ROTC.  Commissioned a 2LT, McMichaels found himself a platoon leader in a mechanized infantry company, and had been promoted to Company XO by the time war broke out.  As XO, 1LT McMichaels was in charge of maintenance, and was at a maintenance point, negotiating/supervising repairs of two of the company's Bradley's when the fateful call came over the radio.  The thirty or so people at the point split into small groups, and headed west-ish.  For all that McMichaels knows, the two deadlined Bradley's are still parked under the trees, waiting for repairs that are unlikely to come.  He'll gladly trade the grid coordinates for support getting his 'command' of five Americans, a German, and a Pole back to something resembling safety.

All told, there is a good amount of page-flipping, chart-checking, and dice-rolling to get one PC, so we'll see if future PCs aren't just archetypes with a bit of fiction attached.  I do like the idea of a Moral Code, a Big Dream, and (my self-decided) Small Dream for the PCs, and can see those making their way into my eventual frankengame.

2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 30

More B/X - this challenge is rough these last few days, but I will persevere!

Dramamine the Steady, N Magic-User 1

S 12 - none

I 14 - reads and writes native language, +1 additional language

W 12 - none 

D 8 - +1 AC, -1 initiative, -1 to hit with missiles

C 11 - none

Ch 10 - 4 retainers max, retainer morale 7

Current XP: 0       XP needed (+5%): 

HP 2

AC 11

Languages Known: Common, Goblin, Elf

Spells Known: Sleep

Equipment: traveling clothes and boots, adventuring gear, stout staff, dagger, sky blue head scarf (a gift from mother), big dreams, naive trust

Goals: to see the world and try to make it a better place.  Ironguard Keep is where she plans to start.

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Blackrazor Headgear is in use, as is the medicine-based naming.  The dice know my habits, though.

 

2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 29

I can feel that time crunch!  More B/X.

Joe Average, Veteran, L Fighter 1

S 11 - none

I 8 - can write simple common words

W 9 - none

D 11 - none

C 9 - none

Ch 11 - none

Current XP: 0    XP needed: 2,001

HP 7

AC 7

Languages known: Common

Equipment: leather armor, spear, sword (technically a falcata), dagger, adventuring gear

Background: Joe was conscripted to fight in the never-ending border wars against the goblinoids and their allies.  His tour of duty over, Joe found he was good with a sword and spear, and preferred travelling and fighting over dirt-farming at home.  So he invested his final pay in some adventuring gear and followed rumors to Ironguard Keep, hoping to fall in with like-minded sorts and win back lost treasures from Chaos. As a tribute of sorts, Joe still wears his hair like they did in his unit - long, but tied off in the back.

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Blackrazor's Headgear was not forgotten for Joe.  B/X will let this guy survive, or at least die usefully.  At this point, I can generate a B/X PC without much consultation of the actual ruleboook.  That is what I call a good character generation system!

2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 6

Yesterday's OA character has me thinking about other games with similar settings.  Like Chanbara.

I own the pdf, but have not yet played it. Being modeled on the B/X ruleset means chargen should be fairly quick and simple.

PCs have the normal six abilities, and the baseline is 4d6, drop lowest, arrange to taste.  Unlike AD&D, there is no recommendation to keep rolling until two (or more) scores are 15 or better.  

Here we go: 15, 7, 8, 12, 12, 13.  I hope the various class requirements aren't too harsh.

Koda Kanamichi the Mahotsukai (magician), specifically an Onmyoji (Exorcist or monster hunter) 1

S - 12 none

I - 15 +1 

W - 8 -1

D - 13 +1

C - 12 none 

Ch - 7 -1

Current XP: 0     XP until next level: 2501

AC 7

HP 5

Spells Known: Contact Minor Spirit, Sainted Weapon, Spirit Ward

Background: Shukyo (religious)

Allegiances: Temple, Family

Religion: 

Skills: Astrology/Geomancy, Investigation, Letters, Religion, Esoterica

Special Abilities: 

Magic Dice - a d6

Demon Hunter - +1 to hit/+2 to damage with weapons to fight demons, undead, and spirits and may use magic dice as combat dice.

Proficiencies: basic and classical weapons, light armor

Equipment: prayer beads, partial light armor, bisento (1d12), dagger (1d4), club (1d4), adventuring gear

That's it.  Far faster and certainly better organized than OA, and as a bonus, Comeliness is not considered.

Chanbara is a sweetly packed rulebook.  Even if I never ran such themed adventures, a large portion of the DM section can be ported to any game, particularly the tables for various leaders, holdings, weather... really, the entire 'Setting up the Campaign' portion of the book is worth the pdf price, and I may let it swing my next purchase of POD things.

 

2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 21

I have lots of games in pdf form, acquired for uncertain and/or forgotten reasons (perhaps I am actually a dragon, and RPG PDFs are what I hoard?).  One such game is Victorious.

Victorious is from Troll Lord Games and is a game set in the Victorian Steampunk Age that Never Was. Powered by TLG's SIEGE engine, a system that sounds familiar (perhaps from skim-reading Castles and Crusades), Victorious has its own take on wizardry.

Like most games, PC generation is a multi-step process.  The first step is to 'imagine the persona.'  Wizard.  Done.  The rest of the steps include way too many pages of choices - kind of like GURPS, but without points assigned.  Unlike GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, they aren't even conveniently grouped into shortened menus, so I am hoping for Archetypes.  

There we go, the Magician is on page 27.   Thank you TLG!

Attributes:

A: Intelligence, B: Dexterity, C: Wisdom - I'm guessing these are kinda like Prime Requisites.

Skills: History/Legend 1 (Local Mythology), Occult 2, Prime 2 (Dexterity, Wisdom), Profession 1 (Parapsychology)

Supernatural Powers: Attribute 2 (+10 Wisdom)

Packages: Magick 4: Blast 1, Entrap 1, Phantasms 1, Telepathy 1

Shortcomings: Enemy (Black Magicians), Notorious, Watched (Theosophist Society)

Equipment: Incense and burner, Wand, various Crystals, Cloak with hidden pockets, Crystal Ball, plot armor, standard comic book tropes, but in the Victorian Age.

Goals: save the world, again.  ensure that the Sun truly never sets on the Empire.  keep feeding the monster under her bed.

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As I was working through the PC design, I was immediately taken with two ideas: one, that this is an awful lot of work and page flipping for one PC, especially if one wants a focused PC, and two, that Victorious reads like a superhero game.

Then on page 23, I find this quote: Victorious is a Steampunk Superhero roleplaying game.  The Steampunk is great.  And I do appreciate the honesty of the game for stating Superhero right in the description (unlike 5e, which still pretends to not be superheroes).  

At least the parts about awarding xp are lootable.  Maybe other parts, as well, but I cannot be bothered to seek them out.

I need to read the game premise more closely before committing.  So I apologize for this entry.  These Characters are supposed to be quick and fun, not timesinks involving too much virtual page-flipping.  In a world of short sporadic gaming sessions (this should improve for me in about 10 years, when my youngest can drive himself around), spending an entire session trying to roll up a playable PC is waste of time.  Victorious is not the only game that takes this route, but it is the game most recently on my mind.

Sometimes people complain on various online fora (notably Facebook), about how players cannot be bothered to 'learn their PC's abilities and spells and skills.'  Perhaps it's because there are too many things to learn.  Especially when sessions are for 3-4 hours every 6-8 weeks.  

The charm of some older game systems is how quickly you can actually be playing the game, instead of playing the subgame of PC creation.  Clones and new games that mirror this fast PC generation have realized this.  Maybe I need to create some Wizards in those rulesets.  

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2022 - Character Creation Challenge - Day 27

Another long day, another quick character.  B/X again.

'Mongo only pawn in game of life.'  My first thought after rolling these numbers.

Mongo 'the Pawn' N Fighter 1

S 10 - none

I 8 - can write simple common words

W 7 - -1 on magic-based saves

D 10 - none

C 14 - +1 hp

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

Current XP   0       XP required for next level: 2,001

HP 9

AC 9

Equipment: clothes, chains, near-shapeless hat, improvised weapons, terrible gas

Goal: a full stomach and people to like him; to get them to like him, he does whatever is asked.

Mongo, from Blazing Saddles, on his trusty steed.

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Sometimes the dice aren't with you, and in those cases, you roll with it or roll a new PC.  Given that this is B/X, I kept the first set rolled.  It's true that I immediately thought of Mongo when I looked at the numbers in whole.  So why not?  He would be fun to play, for a short series of adventures or a one-shot.

Note that if you haven't watched Blazing Saddles, or other Mel Brooks' films, you're missing out.  

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2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 25

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy.

I used the system before this month, for a Swashbuckler sort, but today it is a .... wizard! Shocking, I know.

Arguably the most important book for a would-be Magic-using player.

Abercrombie the Fitch

Attributes: ST 10 (0); DX 12 (40); IQ 15 (100); HT 11 (10)

Secondary Characteristics: Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20lbs; HP 10 (0); Will 15 (0); Per 12 (-15); FP 11 (0); Basic Speed 6.00 (5); Basic Move 6 (0)

Advantages: Energy Reserve 3 (Magical) (9) and Magery 3 (35) and 30 points - Intuition (15), Language (3); Energy Reserve 7 (Magical) (12)

Disadvantages: -15 points - Weirdness Magnet (-15), -20 points Curious (-5); Oblivious (-5); Overconfidence (-5); Stubborness (-5)

Skills:

Staff-14 (8)

Innate Attack (any) -14 (4)

Alchemy-15 (8)

Hazardous Materials-14 (1)

Hidden Lore (Spirits)-15 (2)

Meditation-14 (2)

Occultism-15 (2)

Research-14 (1)

Speed-Reading-14 (1)

Teaching-14 (1)

Thaumatology-15 (1)

Writing-14 (1)

Cartography-14 (1)

Climbing-11 (1)

Diplomacy-13 (1)

Fast Draw (Scroll)-12 (1)

First Aid-15 (1)

Hidden Lore (Magical Items)-14 (1)

Hiking-10 (1)

Scrounging-12 (1)

Stealth-11 (1)

Spells (30 spells 1 point each)

1. Apportation-16
2. Counterspell-16
3. Create Air-16
4. Create Fire-16
5. Create Water-16
6. Deflect Missile-16
7. Detect Magic-16
8. Dispel Magic-16
9. Fear-16
10. Fireball-16
11. Haste-16
12. Heat-16
13. Identify-16
14. Ignite Fire-16
15. Keen Vision-16
16. Light-16
17. Magelock-16
18. See Invisible-16
19. Seek Earth-16
20. Sense Life-16
21. Sense Spirit-16
22. Shape Air-16
23. Shape Earth-16
24. Shape Fire-16
25. Simple Illusion-16
26. Stone Missile-16
27. Turn Spirit-16
28. Walk on Air-16
29. Walk on Water-16
30. Wizard Eye-16

Background and Goals: Abercrombie has always experienced wierdness, which is how he discovered he could work magic.  Since that time, he has functioned mostly as a ghostbuster, and has come out on top so many times that he automatically presumes his luck will hold.  His goal is to become a known and respect pyromancer, but he has a long way to go before that happens.

He is also smart enough to realize that fireballs won't solve every problem.

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As before, I didn't read the descriptions of the various advantages, disadvantages, or skills, I just went with what sounded interesting.  I applied the same logic to spell choice.  Fortunately, there is a master spell table in the back of the Spells book, so page flipping was minimal.  

I do like how GURPS uses prerequisite spells to learn more advanced spells, and how that table in the back of the book spells out the prereqs. These prerequisite spells quickly filled out my starting 30 list, so further reading will dictate how useful this wizard actually is.  If in play, I would learn the hard way, but having this master table is a fine way to customize a wizard, as it provides immediate goals to work towards, spell-learning-wise. A better organized character write up would include the various schools of magic for the spells.

All that said, my understanding is that not all GURPS spells are in Dungeon Fantasy, merely most of them.  This knowledge comes from reading the blog Dungeon Fantastic.

If I were actually planning to play this PC, I would put more thought into spells and such chosen.

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2022 Character Creation Challenge - Day 2 (catch up)

This time, I'm rolling up an AD&D PC.  

Technically, AD&D provides several rolling options for players, but I am going with the tried-and-true 4d6, drop lowest, and arrange to taste method (which is Method 1).

My first set of numbers is: 5, 9, 10, 13, 13, 14.  This set violates the recommendation on page 9 of the PHB, that it is usually essential to the character's survival to be exceptional (with a rating of 15 or above) in no fewer than two ability characteristics, so I'll be rolling again: 8, 12, 12, 13, 15, 16.  Much better, according to page 9 and math.  Still, I'm game to try the best of three, so last set: 11, 13, 13, 15, 16, 16.

The third time's a charm, indeed!  With these numbers, the PC qualifies for all classes but Paladin.  In AD&D, Magic-Users end up with lots of spare dice rolls, so that is what I'm going with.  AD&D lets you pick race, as well, with attendant bonuses and penalties, but for this magic-user, I am sticking with human.

Garrick the Prestidigitator, LN Human Magic-User 1

S 11 none, open doors 1-2, bend bars/lift gates 2%

I 16 minimum Int to cast 8th level spells, 5 languages known, know spell 65%, min/max spells per level 7/11

W 13 none

D 16 +1 reactions, -2 defensive adjustment

C 13 system shock survival 85%, resurrection survival 90%

Ch 15 max henchmen 7, loyalty base +15%, reaction adjustment +15%

Current XP: 0     XP to next level: 2,501

AC 8

HP 2

Languages Known: Common, Dragon, Elf, Goblin, Giant, Lizard Man

Spells Known:

1 - Read Magic, Sleep, Unseen Servant, Ventriloquism

Equipment: standard adventuring gear, letter of introduction from his master

Goal(s): find more spells, acquire a magic ring, live to old age

The AD&D DMG must be consulted to determine how many and which spells are started with, RAW (pg 39), as well as to learn more on spell acquisition in general.  That said, every magic-user begins knowing Read Magic, then randomly determines an offensive, a defensive, and a miscellaneous spell - each conveniently a d10 roll.  Beginning with an additional defensive or miscellaneous spell is DM-determined option.

Garrick's DM was not that kind.  Still, according to the dice, Garrick has a solid set of spells.  Which is good, because he'll need all the help he can get, because 2 hit points means a quick death from all sorts of bothersome things. 

Overall, not bad at all.  Those high numbers do lend themselves to surviving early levels.  For the record, I went with higher Charisma over Constitution because +1 hit point per level is nothing compared to all the hit points that anticipated henchmen provide.

Speaking of surviving early levels, here is a slightly wiser and more powerful version of this mighty spell-slinger.

Garrick the Conjurer, Human Magic-User 3

Current XP: 7,500    XP to next level: 10,001

AC 8

HP 7

Languages Known: Common, Dragon, Elf, Goblin, Giant, Lizard Man

Spells Known:

1 - Charm Person, Read Magic, Sleep, Unseen Servant, Ventriloquism 

2 - Mirror Image

Equipment: standard adventuring gear, letter of introduction from master, treasure map, scroll with Web and Dispel Magic.  

Goals: find more spells, acquire a magic ring, live to old age, surround self with competent allies, travel on the sea

AD&D has some interesting RAW regarding magic-users and spells they might know.  Using Garrick and his 16 Intelligence as an example, there is a 65% chance to understand a spell when scribing it from a scroll or borrowed spellbook.  This means there is a 35% chance that Garrick won't understand the spell, so can never learn it (though can still cast it from scrolls or use items that use the spell).  

This means a low-Intelligence magic-user and/or bad rolls may miss out on all the 'key' spells of early play: Sleep, Charm Person, Knock, Web, etc.  Luckily, if a magic-user's Intelligence increases over the course of play (and it ain't automatic like with 3.x or 5e), the magic-user can try again to learn a spell.  Fortunately, the starter spells granted by the 'Master' are considered automatically known.

All this explains why Web is on a scroll and not in Garrick's spellbooks: he cannot comprehend it.

By third level, Garrick has found and recruited a loyal henchwoman to protect him while he is casting spells.  Which is handy, as leveling only nets Garrick one new spell per level, no doubt of the highest level possible. 

The henchwoman, Astrid the Veteran, is content to serve as long as the pay is regular and the wine is kept flowing between adventures.