Corkboards & Curiosities: a New Angle on DMing

Here's a new YouTube channel that's absolutely worth your time.  There's some clever ideas in this video I will absolutely be implementing in my campaigns soon (especially the "what are you thinking" one).

Fun Dice Tricks with Map Crow

Map Crow is a YouTube vlog that’s hit-and-miss with me; when it’s hot, it’s pretty hot, but when it’s not, it’s pretty meh.  FOR ME, I’ll hasten to point out; there’s a lot of stuff being discussed out there this old troll has seen many different times over the years, nuggets of wisdom rediscovered by new generations.  Reminds me that sometimes the topic I think has been done to death is, in truth, a brand new revelation for somebody, especially with so many new folks entering the hobby.

 

Anyway, Map Crow’s latest is on fun random encounter tables, and he does some really neat stuff using 2d6.  The sum of 2d6 gives you what the encounter is, while the red d6 tells you what the disposition of the encounter, while the blue d6 gives you their distance from the party.  Check it out; he does some fun things with the interaction between the bell-curve and the flat curves, making a the extremely rare roll of snake-eyes really, really ouch.

 

His division of his map is similar to what I did when talking about Hex Mapping, but combining the table, the disposition, and the distance all in one roll is very clever.  I’ll still probably default to my own What-Are-the-Monsters-Up-To table (I’m too much in love with how you can roll differently for intelligent and bestial encounters on the same table), but game must recognize game!

Mad Mashup: One Roll Combat?

Ok, not a single roll to cover the entire fight.  But a single roll by each player to adjudicate not only the success or failure of their attack, but also how much damage they did to their foe and how much, if any, harm their foe did to them.

This should grant us a number of benefits:

• It’s faster!  And when playing online (something I do a lot of lately), this is important.

• If you roll high, you hit hard; no more rolling a 19 and then rolling a 1 on damage.

• Often, both you and your opponent do damage to each other, which makes fights shorter.  

• Something will happen every time, and we won’t go round after round where you miss, and your foe misses, and you miss again, and your foe misses again…

• No rolling for the monster attacks.  Roll poorly, and the monsters will maul you!  Roll great and you’ll send your foe reeling.  This is great because:

• It means a lot less rolling, so things move along a lot faster.

• We don’t have to worry about initiative and fights can flow more dynamically.

• Large solo monsters don’t get whaled on by lots of PCs, while only being able to target a single one in reply.  This makes big scary monsters big and scary, instead of dying in the first round to a massive alpha-strike from the PCs.

• Things this doesn’t mean:

• It doesn’t mean that monsters won’t attack if you don’t attack; they’ll still try to chew off your face if they can.

• It doesn’t mean surprise doesn’t happen; if you get the jump on the baddies, you’ll get a full round to have your way without them getting to reply.

• It doesn’t mean shooting someone with an arrow allows them to hit you with their claws from across the battlefield; ranged attacks will work a bit differently.

Ron Cobb: Implied Storytelling in Concept Art

Ron Cobb is a name to conjure with in the art world, and his work as the  concept artist for the ‘82 Conan the Barbarian movie is well known to me.  At least, I thought it was! 

I came across the official Ron Cobb website and was blown away by the work he did on this movie.  There’s this chonkiness full of soft curves, hints of brutalism in the bones of it all, but softened by earthy silhouettes.  An almost welcoming chthonian quality.  

But what’s even cooler, to my mind, is the implications of a lost age, a more advanced before-time that’s best seen in the castle of King Osric.

I love the mix of heavy timber and almost delicate stone.  It gives the piece a lot of visual interest, but more than that, there’s this implication that the folks who built the timber part couldn’t do the stone part.  And that’s emphasized by this illustration of Zamora’s Gate, not used in the movie.

Or maybe this is just the implication that Osric is an usurper, that he conquered Zamora and hasn’t done a great job of putting it back together again?  Or both?  In any case, lovely work, and effective storytelling that makes the world of the movie feel grounded in a past through implication rather than exposition.  

Stellar Atlas of the Zauberreich: Verðandi, First of the Norn Stars

 Verðandi

Verðandi is a G-type star, and among the earliest stars claimed by Humanity, most likely during the Second Diaspora.  Settlement on Verðandi’s worlds date back at least to the collapse of the Confederation of the Golden Gate and the rise of the Republic of Mars as the de facto leading world of Humanity.  It’s believed that Verðandi was the first of the Norn Stars to be colonized.  

Unlike the other Norn Stars, Verðandi held no Precursor artifacts or ruins.  Legend says that the Confederation had rules against settling on worlds with Precursor ruins, and that Verðandi had started as an outpost to supply those guarding the worlds orbiting Urðr and Skuld.  However, as the promise of the Confederation proved hollow and the alliances founded in its name collapsed, Human refugees settled on all of the habitable Norn worlds.  

Some of the most famous and heavily populated worlds in the Zauberreich orbit Verðandi, including Odin, Frig, and Thor.  

Stellar Atlas of the Zauberreich: Praxis, Capital System (and World) of the Zauberreich

The capital city of Praxis contains a dozen palaces for the Hexenkönigin (one for each of the Twelve Houses of the Galactic Wheel), the bureaucracy of the Zauberreich, and the most prestigious university of sorcery within the Golden Gate Sector of the Orion Arm.

Praxis is the last of the manufactured worlds; after the destruction of the Sol System in the Dust Wars, Humanity fully embraced sorcery in an impassioned example of the “fight fire with fire” philosophy.  To a degree, it worked; those worlds who refused to join the Zauberreich or embrace sorcery as a means of defense were devoured by the Dust or crushed in the ancillary wars, but the newly-forged Zauberreich survived.  

Even before the Dust Wars were completed, the talisman world of Praxis was wrought upon a lonely brown dwarf.  By sorcery was the brown dwarf tamed, and, to a degree, humanized, but not in the manner of the worlds of the Satya Yuga.

Floating in the upper atmosphere of Praxis is the Comb, a lattice of hexagons fashioned from adamantium incised with orichalcum runes and then covered in gold.  Each segment of the lattice is 12 miles long.  Upon this giant lattice is built the capital city, by turns called Praxis, the Comb, or the Palace of Palaces.  

Looking at only the buildable sections of the Comb, the actual lattice segments themselves, there is roughly 12 million square miles of liveable surface area on the Comb.  The Comb houses something like 2.5 trillion people, giving it a population density of roughly 200 thousand people per square mile.  To say Comb is densely packed is an understatement.  Over 90% of that population is Humans, with a wide range of aliens making up the rest.  Roughly two-thirds of the Comb’s inhabitants are slaves.

The Comb is lit and powered by the hellish radiation of the decaying brown dwarf.  The streets are literally paved with gold because gold is a necessary ingredient in the magic that channels this radiation for the use of the citizens and protects those same citizens from the dangers and heat of the radiation. Attempting to remove the gold, so legends say, removes the protection of the Comb from the one damaging it, meaning they will immediately burst into flame and vaporize.  By that same sorcery, the light rising up through the massive holes in the comb (each over 300 square miles in area), waxes and wanes in a 24 hour cycle that is the Human preference.  Likewise, gravity on the Comb is 0.97 g.  

Sorcery is a matter of daily life on Praxis.  The locals think nothing of it, nor do they question the thousands who get their hearts ripped out and their souls sacrificed to demons every Human year to keep their strange city-continent floating above the throbbing maelstroms of the brown dwarf.  Praxis is the most civilized city in the Golden Gate Sector completely lacking in temples to Astarte.  

Art by Stable Diffusion and JB Murphy (using GIMP).

Parley?

I’ve been too busy to keep up with the RPG blog-o-sphere lately (more on that later), so I missed this excellent article at Goblin Punch on negotiations between PCs and monsters/NPCs.  It makes a nice compliment to these two articles I’ve written on the subject:

Honey Cakes For Cerberus

More Honey Cakes for Cerberus

I’ve also got this handy-dandy random table for monster motivations that’s definitely in the top ten for things I’ve posted on this blog that I use most often. 

Mad Mashup: Bard

 And back to my series of classes for my mad mashup of various sources, but based on a B/X core.  

Bard

Some artists can literally tap into the music the Primal Ones used to sing Creation into being.  They can express this through song or stories or music or dance.  In any case, it grants True Bards powers beyond the abilities of mere entertainers.

Requirements

• Bards roll their hit points with a d6.  

• They save as Thieves.

• They can use any weapons but longbows and wear any armour except plate.  They may not use shields.

• Bards can only cast spells if they are at most Heavily Encumbered.

• A Bard must have Dexterity of at least 9 and a Charisma of at least 13.  If a Bard has Dexterity of at least 13 and a Charisma of 16, the Bard enjoys a 10% bonus to all earned EXP.

Abilities

• Every even level, they add a spell of any level from the Bard list to their repertoire.  To successfully cast a spell, the Bard’s player rolls a d20.  They add their Level to the roll and subtract the level of the spell.  If the result is 11+, the spell goes off without a hitch.  If they roll from 6 to 10, the spell goes off, but there’s a backlash.  If they roll 5 or less, the spell doesn’t go off AND they suffer a backlash.

• Every 5th level (5, 10, 15, etc.) the Bard adds another known Language.

• When trolling for rumours, a bard will gain one more than usual.  

• Bards enjoy a +1 bonus when rolling the reaction to an offer of employment to potential Retainers.  

• During fights, a Bard can perform instead of fight.  While they do this, all their allies get +1 to all attack rolls, saving throws, and morale checks.

• Bards can use the wands, staves, and wands that Wizards can use.

• All who watch a Bard perform for at least one Turn (10 minutes) cannot help but be affected by their skills.  When the performance ends, the audience must make a save vs. Spells or have their mood and emotions shifted according to the desires of the Bard.  For every Turn past the first, the saving throws are lowered by -1 to a max of -4.  (See the Apsara for potential synergies.)

A fun class for players who want to risk “bad” magical fumbles.  The combat performance option is also an easy choice for players who don’t enjoy being on the spot or suffer from analysis paralysis.

Art by NC Wyeth and from the manuscript Rudolf von Ems, History of the World, created around 1300.

Mad Mashup: Apsara

And back to my series of character classes for my mad mashup D&D game based on B/X but including rules from all over.  This time, a bit of Hindu myth that really, really harshes on what lots of folks consider a core element of the Old School vibe.

Apsara

Apsara are the handmaidens of the gods, divine nymphs who serve the powers of Order and Chaos equally.  Thus they must be Neutral in alignment.  They are also all female with skin in various shades of blue.  Each is an expert artist, and most favour dance, music, and the erotic arts.  

Requirements

• Apsara use d6 for their hit points.

• They cannot wear any armour or shields.  

• They can use any weapon.

• They can cast cleric spells, but only while at most Lightly Encumbered.

• They save and fight as Clerics.

• An Apsara must have a DEX and Charisma of at least 13.  If both are 16+, the Apsara gets a 10% bonus on all EXP earned.

Abilities

• Apsara can understand all spoken languages, and be understood when they speak.  They are, however, limited as normal in written languages.

• They are also immortal.  They do not age and they cannot die.  Only the most potent of foes or weapons can leave scars on the mind or psyche of an Apsara.  They can, however, be knocked unconscious, charmed, etc.  

• All who watch an Apsara dance for at least one Turn (10 minutes) cannot help but be affected by her grace.  When the dance ends, the audience must make a save vs. Spells or have their mood and emotions shifted according to the desires of the Apsara.  For every Turn past the first, the saving throws are lowered by -1 to a max of -4.  If they are being aided by a Bard or another Apsara, that penalty can go as low as -6.  

• Apsara can use all magical items designed for Clerics, as well as all magical musical instruments.

• 3rd Level: the Apsara can cast Charm once per day.

• 5th Level: Foes must successfully pass a save vs. Paralysis in order to target the Apsara with attacks or harmful magic.  This does not apply if the Apsara is inside a wider area-of-effect attack (like poison cloud or a fireball spell).  

• 6th Level: the Apsara can manifest a second pair of arms, allowing them to take a second action in a Round.

• 7th level: the Apsara can cast Confusion once per day.

• 9th level: the Apsara can cast Charm Monster once per day.

• 10th level: the Apsara can manifest a third pair of arms, allowing them to take up to three actions per Round.  

A fairly straight-forward support and social class.  Fun for people who really like to wield "soft power" and make others look cool.  

Magical Magic That Feels Magical

14. Heart Of The Beast:  Cast this spell on a slain monster’s heart (or reasonably equivalent organ or portion), then consume it.  At any time, you may take the devoured creature’s shape, once, for 10 minutes.  You will retain some physical mark of this transformation afterwards.

Once again, Taichara hits it straight out of the park!

UPDATE: Ok, I posted too quickly.  Here are some thoughts:

Heart of the Beast is clearly meant to allow you to assume the shape of creatures, but "monster" can be an ambiguous term; could the truly unscrupulous use this to mimic a murdered person?

Can you use Skyclad in conjunction with The Stars to Guide You?  I'd certainly allow it.  

You Should be Watching Emergent GM

 This guy packs more in a two-minute video than most others manage in 20+ minutes.

Bill Willingham on Polite Society

 Face it, if you want something in this harsh and unforgiving world, you have to do unto others as the royal and filthy rich have done unto you: you gotta steal it.

-   Mark Finn

 

Mark Finn, raconteur both extraordinary and professional, has a ‘zine in this year’s Zinequest.   Polite Society is all about heists and big-time capers a la the greatest heroes of Sword & Sorcery.  What does Mark Finn know about Sword & Sorcery?  Mark literally wrote the book on Robert E. Howard. 

 

Yes, it’s that Mark Finn.  So you know it’s going to be good.

 

But don’t take my word for it.  Here’s what Bill “Fables” Willingham has to say:

Let me tell you some of the reasons you should consider buying Mark Finn’s new ttrpg zines called, POLITE SOCIETY: The Zine for Thieves, Scoundrels, and Ne’er-Do-Wells. 

First of all, Mark writes good rules. Like him, they’re aged in fine oak casks, and go down as smooth as 20 year old scotch. No critique intended against every year’s new crop of hot young gunslinger rules writers – you all have your place keeping the games fresh and alive – but give me rules by one of the old guard rpg guys with nothing more to prove. He’s already spent a lifetime behind the dice, seeing what works and what doesn’t, and we reap the rewards.

Polite Society works. And, believe me, as one of its playtesters (along with Bill Williams and Brad Thomte), I tried in every way possible to wreck, ravage, and undermine those rules, because trying to get away with all kinds of sabotage is part of a playtester’s remit. Test To Destruction is the operable term. No destruction occurred, and instead we had a wonderful extended campaign. I’ve playtested many a game (including, but not limited to TSR’s Star Frontiers, and Top Secret, and too many D&D modules to count, and the original revamp of Jeff Dee’s and Jack Herman’s Villains & Vigilantes), and this is the first time the system being tested didn’t need a ton of work, just to make it minimally playable.*

But a set of cool rules (to quote Spicoli) isn’t enough. That’s the same as admiring a well-written recipe and actually eating the dish that results from it. Can you plan and execute a good, workable caper with Polite Society? The answer is unequivocally YES. Not only can you run a good heist, and maybe even a great one, but you can do so with only a few minute’s preparation. One of the best parts of every playtest sessions was after the fact, when Mark would run down the checklist of what went into planning that day’s caper. The job, the twist, the unexpected complication, and so much more – it’s all in there, every time.

So then, without reservation, or hesitation, I invite you to back Mark’s crowdfunding campaign, and/or buy the zines as they appear. In this brave new age of larceny-themed fantasy role playing games (and movies it seems) this is an addition to the popular new subgenre that’s guaranteed to stand out.

Thank you for listening,

Bill Willingham

Former TSR staff artist; lifetime gamer; creator of the long-running comic series Fables.

*For example, in Top Secret did you know there was originally a defensive fighting position one could get into during Hand to Hand Combat in which you could not possibly be touched? Of course you didn’t, because we found it and fixed it. And the hand grenade damage rules were flummoxed by us playtesters by taking turns swallowing each grenade thrown. Since it only did a single d10 of damage, but did it to everyone in its area of effect, we’d just take turns taking the hit for the team.

 

And yes, it's this Bill Willingham:

Mad Mashup: Elves

Elves represent the greatest deviation I’m making from the classic classes.  B/X elves are warrior-wizards.  My elves are much more Tolkienesque.  They’re an excellent alternative to Clerics for a party healer and have some nice synergies with the Ranger.

The Elf Spell-list isn't detailed here.  In a more Tolkienesque world, they would actually use the Druid list instead of the traditional Magic-user list.  Which I use depends on the flavor we're looking for.

Millenia ago, for mysterious reasons, the Elves migrated from Fairey to this world.  While they still maintain more than a touch of their Fey ancestry, they are now also very much creatures of this world.  Today they guard the wild and beautiful places, and try to maintain balance in the struggle between Order and Chaos by championing the side that’s weakest.  For this reason, most of the gods find Elves very annoying, and few will accept them as priests. 

Requirements

• Elves roll d6 for their hit points.

• They may use any armour, shields, and weapons.

• You use the Elf’s Saving Throws.

• They may only cast spells if they are at most Heavily Encumbered.

• Elves must have a DEX of at least 13 and a WIS of at least 9.  An Elf with both scores 16 or above enjoys a 10% bonus to all EXP earned.

Abilities

• At every level, an Elf may add a spell from the Elf spell list to their repertoire.  The levels of spells they can pick from depend on their class level.  They may cast each of these spells once per day.  

• Elves have strong rapport with animals.  A group with at least one Elf in it enjoys a +1 on reaction rolls with normal animals.  If an Elf spends an entire Round (10 seconds) talking to an animal, they can radically shift its mood.

• Elves are also known as excellent healers.  When an Elf casts a healing spell, roll twice to see how many hit points are restored and take the higher roll. Those convalescing under an Elf’s care regain double the hit points they normally would (before any other bonuses are applied).  

• Elves can see by dim light like starlight out to 60’.  In total darkness, they can see dimly out to 15’.

• Elves cannot be put to sleep by magic, and the touch of ghouls does not paralyse them.  

• All Elves speak both High Elvish and Vulgar Elvish as well as Common.

No Dice for You! (And a Question About Mechanics)

What are you general thoughts about rules that don't have the GM rolling any dice.  For instance, if a monster attacks a PC, instead of the GM rolling on behalf of the monster, the PC's player rolls for the PC to resist the monster's attack.

On the plus side, I'd think combat would run more smoothly this way, and the GM can focus more on tactics and making the fight fun, rather than juggling dice.  

On the minus side... GM's don't get to roll dice?  I'm having a hard time coming up with negatives on this.

There are a few games that run this way already, with Numenera/Cypher probably being the biggest.  I wasn't a big fan of how Numenera pushed so much of the mechanics onto the players, but that had more to do with burning stats than having the players roll the dice.

What say you?

UPDATE: someone on the Book of Faces pointed out that the GM can't fudge rolls.  Man, it's been a long forever ago since I fudged a roll.  

Shields Still Being Splintered

It does this old troll’s heart good to hear that folks are still getting fun out of Shields Shall be Splintered.  I recently discovered that the Down In a Heap podcast discussed the rule, and that conversation was picked up by theConfessions of a Wee Tim’rous Bushi podcast, expanding the idea further in other types of armour.  (I haven't listened to the whole thing yet, but it kinda-sorta sounds like a codification of Jeff's Everything Shall be Splintered idea.)

 

As for me, I’m still very much using it.  I do limit it by using LotFP’s encumbrance system, which makes tracking encumbrance as easy as just writing things on your equipment list.  I have no problem with hirelings carrying spare shields; shield bearer is an actual word from history.  (But so far, no one has really pushed this and I’ve not heard of it annoying anyone else at the table.) 

 

As for who else can use it, that really depends.  I swing back and forth on the players running their PCs’ hirelings, and if the players are doing so, I let them decide when the hireling might sacrifice a shield to protect themselves.  Monsters typically do not use it, unless they have names or the Rule of Cool suggests now is a good time for that to happen.

ADDENDUM: It appears the idea of the shield stopping some of the damage, but not all, is a popular one.  Here’s another variation on that theme.

ZineQuest?

 

Contemplating doing ZineQuest this year.  Any advice from those of you who have done it before?