Eleven Years and Little To Show For It...

Eleven. Years. 

Eleven years ago (in just a few short days), on September 26, 2009, I posted to my older now-deleted blog about a crazy idea I had to write a game (Don't fret. All those must-read posts have been merged into this blog now.) Like so many others, I had and still have, a love for cyberpunk and R.Talsorian's Cyberpunk RPG, and even moreso for the "cyberfantasy" sub-genre so wonderfully created by FASA with the publication of their Shadowrun RPG in 1989. That melding of the near-future dystopia and (now-retro) tech of Cyberpunk with the fantasy tropes found in Dungeons & Dragons was, to steal a phrase, magical. The rich setting of Shadowrun drew my interest like a moth to a flame, far more than "pure" Cyberpunk ever did, to be honest. There was just one problem though - the rules were a hot mess. We tried to puzzle them out and play the game, without much success. We finally gave up and went back to D&D. Nowadays, ANY version is too detailed for my taste, for sure.

I make no bones about the fact that I just want to play D&D. The rules that is, not necessarily the setting. And on top of that, while I'll happily play the current 5th Edition rules, I have little interest in running that game. My loyalty and preferences still lie with the earlier editions I played in my youth. Lighter and more streamlined, easier to bend, fold and mutilate without one change here causing some unforeseen issue over there in another part of the game. 

Eleven years ago, my sights were set on Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox as my engine of choice. Even today, it's a strong game, lovingly adopted and adapted by it's fans. Versions exist for Sci-Fi (White Star), the Spy/James Bond genre (White Lies), World War II era gaming (WWII: Operation WhiteBox) and many other lesser know variations. All excellent in their own right.  What I ultimately came to realize was that while that was a fine system, what I really wanted was good old B/X D&D. Over the intervening years, I also tinkered around with the more popular clones that emulate B/X - Labyrinth Lord and more recently, Advanced Labyrinth Lord, as well as Basic Fantasy RPG. Again, all fantastic games, but something kept holding me back. Enter Necrotic Gnome and Old-School Essentials (or OSE for short).

Much has been written by others much more eloquent than I, praising OSE. For those who haven't heard (where you been, kid?) OSE is a 100% accurate BX clone, published either as the single-volume tome I linked up above, or as a box set of five slim modular books. The material is presented in easy to use two-page spreads of information - an absolute stroke of genius in RPG layout and design. The five volume format consists of Core Rules (the BX engine, as it were), Genre Rules (genre-specific races, classes, equipment and so on), Spells, Monsters, and Treasures. As of this writing, the original five-book core set is "Classic Fantasy" - the original B/X material. Additionally, a recent Kickstarter campaign has also rounded out the "Advanced Fantasy" series of, again, Genre Rules, Spells, Monsters, and Treasures all drawn from AD&D. We've already seen preliminary PDFs and the new content is fantastic.  Necrotic Gnome has also hinted at a future Post-Apocalyptic Genre book - think Mad Max more than Gamma World.

Herein lies our path forward. The design of OSE takes much of the work off my plate. There's no need to reiterate the core rules of gameplay - writing for OSE compatibility lets me merely reference relevant portions of those rules as needed. I can focus my creative energy on just the relevant bits needed for my cyberpunk and/or Shadowrun conversions.  To that end, my current "plan" (and I use the term very loosely,) is to work on two separate OSE genre books: first, a "core" Cyberpunk book detailing the tech-based classes, cyberware, firearms and modern weaponry, how computers and hacking will work, vehicles and drones - all the trappings that fans of cyberpunk expect to see, and need to run their games. Secondly, a Cyberfantasy supplement which adds the rules for magical classes, fantastic races and the supporting rules and additional information to run a Shadowrun-inspired game.  I hope that may satisfy fans on both sides of the magical divide. My goal is to keep both volumes very generic in terms of setting, which should allow them to be used with material from other publishers, whether that be the Seattle sprawl of Shadowrun, Cyberpunk's Night City, or New Angeles from FFG's Android universe.

What else to say for now? Not much, I'd guess. Time to put up or shut up. Eleven years of thinking and talking about a thing is too long with nothing to show for it. I want to make this a reality, so time to git'r done. 

Finally, a tip o' the hat to user @Seph on the Old-School Essentials Discord server for cluing me in to the term "cyberfantasy" to so clearly describe Shadowrun. Much neater than lesser terms like Urban Fantasy have felt to me. Cheers mate!

"Fatigue"-based Magic System Thoughts

Hey there everyone! Not very active here, am I? Well, such is life, but it doesn't mean that I don't still have ideas racing around in my head on this little project.  I still intend to do a "straight" cyberpunk ruleset as the initial phase of CHROME, but the fantasy bits will come, and the idea for a way to handle spell casting has more or less come together in my head over the last couple of days.  The rambling essay below is more to get it on paper than anything else. Thoughts and feedback are certainly welcomed.

Ok, so I've got this idea for a more free-form magic system than the "stock" D&D version. I might well be right off my rocker on this. It's inspired by a few things - the idea of a spell point system rather than strict Vancian memorization, the S&W/Akratic Wizardry magic house rules where spells burn hit points as a measure of fatigue, and an optional bit tagged on the end that harkens back to Shadowrun's dice pool & spell fatigue concepts. Kind of. I want a more 3E sorcerer feel to magic - a limit on available spells, but more freedom to cast them at will. 

MUs gain a pool of spell points equal to their level, and spells cost one SP per level to cast. Casting will first use the points drawn from this pool - an arcane "battery" if you will, that represents them being stronger in magic as they increase in level. You'll note however, that a third level MU has just 3 points - that's just 3 first level spells, or one first and one second, compared to 3 first and 1 second under the standard system. So, on top of these spell points, the MU can continue to cast spells by burning HP instead of designated SP. This method assumes you look at hit points in the abstract sense of being a measure of luck, fatigue, nicks & scraps rather than real damage. As you use up HP, you become more fatigued, finally falling unconscious at 0. In my games, death doesn't occur at zero, but rather at -HP equal to level + CON bonus, representative of "real" damage below zero.

Since MUs have relatively low HP this doesn't seem too overpowered to me, but allows them the option of casting more spells per day if they are willing to pay the price. If they end up in more combat later on, they are already down on HP and easier to kill.

Casters still use the MU spells memorized table for the spells in their head, available to cast at any given time, and they can change what they have memorized after a nights rest. I'm thinking they also can have a number of additional spells memorized equal to their INT modifier, that can be used for any level of spells they are able to cast. So, a third level MU with a 17 INT would memorize 3 first level and 1 second level spell, plus two more of either level, for a total load-out of six spells available to cast.

The last piece of the puzzle is the idea of a dice pool as a further power balancing mechanic. Since I've allowed them to memorize more spells than normal, there should be a chance to lose those as well - a skill check sort of thing. After casting a spell, the MU rolls a number of d6 equal to his level. If he rolls at least one 6, then the spell is cast, SP (or HP) burned and he retains the spell in memory to be cast again. If the roll comes up ALL 6s, it's a critical success and the spell goes off WITHOUT using up any spell points. Conversely, if the roll comes up all ONES, it's a critical failure and while the spell is cast successfully, it is lost from memory until re-memorized the next day. I'm iffy on this part - not sure if the spell should fail as well on a critical failure.

Ten Questions

Late to jump on the bandwagon here, but this seemed like a fun exercise to help nail down some concepts and background for my campaign...

Without further ado, my answers to Random Wizard's "Ten Questions." There are a few other sets of these around and maybe I'll try to answer those too, just to round things out.  We'll see.

Race (Elf, Dwarf, Halfling) as a class? Yes or no?
Yes, definitely. I cut my teeth on B/X, and still run Classic D&D.  I strongly believe in races being archetypal in my campaigns, so Race-as-Class is a given.  That said, I also believe more variety for my players is better, and makes them happier, so I use the ACKS model of multiple racial classes.

Do demi-humans have souls?
Honestly, I never gave this one much thought.  My players haven't tried to have anyone Raised, so it hasn't come up. I use fey races that do not. My elves are more fey than BTB elves, so they would not either.  The other "standard" demi-humans in Caldera (dwarves, halflings and orcs) do.

Ascending or descending armor class?
Ascending. Heretical, I know.  I use an attack bonus combat system rather than tables or Thac0 and just convert descending on the fly.

Demi-human level limits?
Theoretically, yes.  Got to give they some reason to play humans.  Of course, I haven't had anyone reach the limit either so it hasn't mattered in practice.

Should thief be a class?
Absolutely.  Didn't start on OD&D, so for me the thief has always been a core class.  I don't like the granularity of percentile skills though, and use a modification of the thief in Delving Deeper which allows improvement of the skills.

Do characters get non-weapon skills?
That they can choose from? No. Skills related to your class are built into the classes, plus I'll wing it based on the player's character concept and background.

Are magic-users more powerful than fighters (and, if yes, what level do they take the lead)?
Eventually, yes.  It's part and parcel of the class.  Just need to survive long enough to develop that power.  When do they take the lead? Not really sure - I suppose that's variable depending upon the spells they've chosen over time.

Do you use alignment languages?
No, don't make any sense to me.  I use cultural/regional human languages instead.

XP for gold, or XP for objectives (thieves disarming traps, etc...)?
Primarily just for monsters and gold.  Using your class abilities to reach your objectives is your job.  Do your job, you find treasure and then gain your XP from it.

Which is the best edition; ODD, Holmes, Moldvay, Mentzer, Rules Cyclopedia, 1E ADD, 2E ADD, 3E DD, 4E DD, Next ?
Best is ridiculously objective.  I have my preferences (Moldvay, Mentzer, RC) but pull the bits I like from anywhere I happen to find them, regardless of edition.

Bonus Question: Unified XP level tables or individual XP level tables for each class?
Individual.  It's part of the "balance" between classes as I see it.

More OGL Musings

I've rambled on in the past about my waffling on the OGL.  I don't play Labyrinth Lord or Swords & Wizardry for the most part. I own the real D&D books - B/X, Rules Cyclopedia, OD&D - and primarily use those as my references when I run my game at the table. I play D&D, as heavily house-ruled as it may be, as opposed to one of the clones. As a result of that house-ruling and such, I need to be able to share those changes and additions with my players.  My issue has long been that I also want to share my creations with the online community, but at the same time, I'm too lazy to do it right, all OGL-legal and official.

It was actually this post by Dyson Logos, where he explains his reasoning behind NOT sharing his work in a PDF format, that ultimately clarified my own position on the OGL.

I find great inspiration in the boundless creativity of the online OSR community. Blogs, forums, Google+: These all contribute a wealth of information and like most other gamers I'm sure, I make great use of what I find.  Sometimes it's used whole cloth, other times it tweaked, folded or mutilated into something I can use. But for something that will ultimately only be used at my table, I don't want to be bothered keeping track of where exactly I found a particular useful tidbit - who wrote it, it's OGL info if there even is any.  Credit where credit is due, yeah that's important, but mostly it's not very recognizable as the original material anyway.  To be honest, I don't know where the line is that makes it the original OGL content they shared versus something inspired by that, but no longer the same.

Artwork is also an issue.  I'm no artist and my booklets and documents I use at the table are all gussied up with real artists copyrighted works.  I don't have permission to use them and could never get it. But you know what?  I decided I don't really care.  I'm not making a penny sharing this stuff, and I see it as free advertising.  If  someone ever sees their work in a PDF I post on the blog here and wants it pulled, then just ask and I'll remove it, or put a credit in there if that's enough to satisfy.  I'm not a dick.

So here's how it will work going forward.  I love to see other peoples house rule books, campaign guides and all that (Outland and Planet Eris, I'm looking at you).  It's great to see how they've lovingly done all the layout work to ape the format of the OD&D booklets, or the old Mystara Gazetteers, and that's the cool looking stuff I want to share too. Part of the fun for me is playing around in Photoshop making covers and fiddling with layouts and making things look pretty and "official." Making the houserule and player reference booklets I throw out on the table for my players look like real supplements to the books I use as DM. It is what it is, and I want to share the fruits of those labors.  Occasionally, I'll throw a PDF up here someplace for people to look at if they are interested  They won't be legal, or OGL compatible in any way.  Just your run of the mill fan works.  They'll use trademarked D&D terms or TSR era content WOTC won't let us use in OGL products.  They'll have art and non-TSR content that may or may not be credited to the creators.  These are documents I made for me, not for you, but I also don't want them to languish on my hard drive with no one but me getting any use out of them. Enjoy them for what they are.

Like Dyson's maps and content on his blog, the content posted here on the blog is yours to use. Steal away.

Happy Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day everyone!  I know you've all got a lot of blogs to get through today, so I'll try not to keep you here too long.  Anyway, I'm sure there are plenty of blogs with much better content than this sad thing - I just wanted to share a little something and be a part of the fun.

I thought I'd take a two-pronged approach and talk just a bit about what I'm doing with S&W. 

The Kingdoms in Trevail Fantasy Campaign
First, know that WhiteBox is my edition of choice.  While I like tweaks that Matt added in the "final" version he released into the wild, I ultimately decided to stick with the BHP version.  I've got the booklet PDFs, so I can easily print off table copies of only the booklets my players will need to reference, while keeping all the DM info out of their grubby hands. I've also got the hardcover single-volume for my own reference. In the tradition of OD&D, I've got a separate supplement booklet that covers my changes of the core game: new classes and races, house rules and such.

Chrome - A Cyberpunk Supplement
I've talked about my love of the cyberpunk genre in the past and won't rehash that here.  Suffice it to say, while it's Shadowrun I enjoyed the most, and one I envision doing a retro-inspired game as a long-term project, my shorter-term goal is to hash out a supplement for OD&D, Delving Deeper, S&W or whatever your rules-light system of choice may be.  I chose WhiteBox because of it's elegance and the fact that a couple of it's unique features will lend themselves to my vision.  Double-statted AC and Single Saving Throw- I'm looking at you! The S&W supplement will let me work out the basics of a near future rules set - firearms, vehicles and drones, computer hacking and so on.

Paying the Piper: Some Examples


The "Success Escalation" Skill Check
Within the rules of OD&D is a rudimentary skill system which carried on through the Holmes rules and into the B/X and BECMI box sets. Under those rule sets we see a base 1 in 6 chance for a PC to accomplish a desired task.  In addition, there will be special cases where a particular class or race expands those chances to 2 or even 3 in 6.

With that as a base, I use the following system:  First, I've established that any PC can attempt a given task at a base 1 in 6 chance of success.  If the task is judged to fall within the realm of the PC's class, the base chance of success is increased.  At 1st level the base chance of success is 2 in 6.  This increases to 3 in 6 at 5th level and 4 in 6 at 10th level.

All skill checks are made by rolling 3d6, with "successes" at the chances noted above, resulting in 1, 2 or 3 successes for a given skill check.  In cases where the skill check results in a binary yes/no result, a single success is all that is required for the PC to have accomplished his goal.  However, there will often be cases where the degree of success is important.  Negotiation for the purchase or sale of merchandise, gathering of information, or perhaps the determination of how long it takes to pick a lock or disarm a trap, for example. One success yields a positive result, but under sub-optimal conditions.  Two successes is an average success, merely adequate. Finally, three successes indicates a n exceptional result.

So to illustrate, using the purchase of a rare item as our example:
1 Success - PC barters poorly, item available for purchase, but at 150% of the rulebook price.
2 Successes - Average results, item can be had at the standard price.
3 Successes - PC is a smooth talker, dickers the price down to just 50% of the standard price.

A "Kingdoms In Trevail" Fantasy Race
The Orc
The brutish Orc is the most primal of the demi-human races, most typically found in the borderlands and on the fringes of society.  Their tough and war-like nature means that Orcs are often employed as mercenary shock troops or scouts for wilderness exploration.  Orcish culture tends to be militaristic, as if they themselves realize that the enforcement of strict order is all that keeps them from reverting to wild beasts.

Orcs usually range from 6’ to 6 1/2’ in height and weight 200+ pounds. You must have a minimum Strength of 12 to play an Orc character.

Orcish Race Abilities
Character Advancement:  Most Orcs advance as Fighters, and may progress as far as 6th level. More rare is the Orc Shaman, who may advance to 4th level as a Magic-User.

Weapon and Armor Restrictions:  Seemingly born with a weapon in their hand, Orcish fighters excel in the arts of war and consequently have no weapon or armor restrictions. Orcish shaman have no weapon restrictions, however they are limited to leather armor only.

Saving Throw:  Due to their inherent toughness, Orcs make all Saving Throws as if they were two levels higher.

Languages: or campaigns which give each race their own dialect, Orcs should be able to speak the languages of goblins, hobgoblins and gnolls.

Wild Instincts:  Orcs have an uncanny ability for threat detection. They will only be surprised on a roll of 1 in 6 and this danger sense applies whether the source is natural, magical or supernatural.

Intimidation:  Orcs may use their ferocious reputation and brutish appearance to bully and intimidate others into obedience.  They receive a bonus to reaction rolls as if their Charisma were two points higher.

Stealth: When in the wilderness, Orcs are skilled at using the terrain to move without being noticed by his prey or his enemies.


While I do have some of the details of Chrome worked out, I think I'll keep those under my hat a bit longer and save them for another day.  There are a heck of a lot more blogs for you to go check out today and I won't keep you here any longer.

Happy Gaming - Swords & Wizardry style!

The Host

THIS one...

Having a 13 year old daughter, it should come as no surprise to anyone in a similar position to know that she wanted to go see The Host this past weekend. Based on a novel by Stephanie Meyer, the brains behind Twilight, needless to say I was not overly enthused. My vote was for Olympus Has Fallen. But being the Dad of the Year, I took one for the team to go see it with her.

I do try to go into these things with an open mind, and maybe pull something interesting from it for my game. The story is essentially a love triangle with a twist. Alien invaders have taken over the planet, aside from small pockets of human resistance. The aliens are a parasitic species who are implanted into a human host body and take it over, usually crushing the original spirit/consciousness of the human. Of course this time it isn't that easy and the original person and the parasitic alien need to share the body, kind of anyway. So, two people in one body, they naturally fall in love with two different people. Blah. Still, not the utter trash I had expected it to be and I did get an idea or two.

NOT this one.

I did like the idea of the parasitic controllers with a noticeable "tell." Infected humans eyes change so it's obvious they are controlled by the aliens. Might be an interesting cyberpunkish future setting point. Aliens controlling people, resistance trying to blend in and can mimic the eyes via surgery or something.

Was it a great movie? No. But if your young tween daughters want to go see it, you could have it worse. It could be Twilight... One thumb up.

More Cover Concepts

Just noodling around with my covers on a lazy Sunday morning - it's what I do for inspiration.  Curious what people think of them.

On the OD&D front, I realized I used the image off the cover of "View From the Edge" and not the  CP 2013 box art.  I also made the red color a bit darker and changed the TSR "Wizard" logo to a small image of Alt from the CP books.

Since I had gotten some feedback about the name "cyber74", I'm trying something else.  How does just plain "Chrome" strike you?

Will have some time this afternoon to do some writing.  Going to try and work through an outline/table of contents, and get some other thoughts out on paper.  Will keep you updated!

Trauma Team Saves the Day!

It's been a looooong time, Choomba, but contrary to the rumors, I'm not dead.  Not yet, anyway.

It turns out that cyberpunk and Shadowrun are going to be pretty hot through 2013.  It isn't the world that we imagined back in the 80's, but it's still pretty amazing living in the future. A new Cyberpunk video game, Cyberpunk 2077, is being developed by CD Projekt RED, the folks behind The Witcher. Set in the world of Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk RPG, I gotta say I'm pretty stoked to see what comes of this one. Meanwhile, Catalyst Game Labs has announced a whole slew of Shadowrun awesomeness for 2013.  A new 5th Edition of the RPG, MMO action, minis games - all sorts of stuff.

So where does that leave us?  Well, there's been some interest in the OD&D/Swords & Wizardry CP supplement I've talked about quite a bit, but haven't produced yet.  Given it's 2013 and all, I can't help but feel the time is right to finally crank this puppy out.  I gotta new gameplan and everything!

First, a purely fan-based effort:
Supplement 2.0.2.0 for Dungeons and Dragons - Cyberpunk. A free OD&D-ized CP supplement to the original game. Theoretically, it's pretty quick and dirty to crank out and get some feedback on.

From there, I move on to the S&W version I've talked about before, Cyber74.  This one will be properly OGL. There was some feedback on the name - maybe "74" throws off the 80's CP vibe.  I'm considering just calling it "RetroCyberpunk" since S&W is a retro-clone of white box OD&D. Dunno yet.

And finally the golden ring of my carousel of CP projects - the full Shadowrun-inspired game, compatible with old-school D&D (by way of Labyrinth Lord) - Sixth World.

Will any of it actually happen this time around?  I hope at least some of it does.  One step at a time...

Bookshelf Lemming

So, James over at Grognardia does his thing, and we all follow along like good little lemmings.  That said, it's pretty cool to see everyone's RPG collections, so I'm game as well...

Top Shelf

Just a very small selection compared to many, it seems.  I have tons on PDF, but since it's mostly for reading or reference, not playing, there's no dead tree versions.

Here we have my digest-sized homemade booklets: OD&D and supplements, (including Jason Vey's Conan, Mars, etc.), S&W White Box booklets, digest sized versions of 'zines like ODDities and Footprints, Encounter Critical, Terminal Space and other assorted goodies.  My reference stack of Shadowrun/Cyberpunk books.  I still have delusions of making a B/X based version someday.  Also some binders full of printouts.  It's settings mostly: Greyhawk (folio & box), Forgotten Realms (original grey box), the old JG Wilderlands, and a few Mystara Gazetteers.

Bottom Shelf

My other shelf is mostly D&D stuff - some "real" books, others printed and bound.  We've got the AD&D 1E core books, my RC, and a pile of either TSR or OSR  classic D&D goodies. S&W Core and Complete, a bit of Savage Worlds stuff.  I want to run some zombie apocalypse using SW at some point.  And yes, even a set of 3.5 core rulebooks. Binders are printouts of modules and Mentzer BECMI.

Cheers!

Map Scaling or How Big Is This Place?

Even before I starting working on the Caldera map, I was struggling a bit with the question of scale. If one looks to the gold standard of hex mapping - the Mystara/Known World maps from the Gazetteer series - we see that TSR used a few scales, primarily 72, 24 and finally 8 miles per hex.

If you are unfamiliar with these awesome maps, I'll point you to The Piazza, and the archive of maps lovingly recreated by Thorfinn Tait.  Go check them out, I'll wait... Good?  Then I'll continue.

Starting with the island continents I presented in the last post, I spent quite a bit of time zooming in and out, playing with the hex templates from Welsh Piper.  I had a few issues I wanted to hash out: how big, overall, should Caldera be? What combination of scales let's me zoom from a reasonable "atlas" view down to Regional and Campaign Area maps? I knew I wanted my "standard" to be 6 mile hexes rather than the 8 mi of the Mystara maps, having been convinced of the utility of that scale by a number of good articles around the web, which I am too lazy to find and cite for you right now.

Here's where I ended up.  First is a new overlay on the mapgen island graphic, scaled to 150 miles per hex, rather than the 300 I shared previously.  I can then take individual islands and map them in Hexographer at 30 mi/hex - a 5:1 zoom. That's analogous to TSR's 24 mi maps. Eventually, I can puzzle them all together to recreate the world map overview at 30.  From there, I can use the Child Map feature of Hexographer to do another 1:5 zoom and get my Regional maps at 6 mi/hex - right where I want to be.  If I want to zoom in one last step for campaign maps, I can go 6:1 and have 1 mile hexes. There is also the option of the Judges Guild hexes that are 25:1, I think, for really close zooms.

Just for comparison's sake, I offer the Known World and Caldera's central 3-Island cluster:

Caldera: Birth of a World

The creation process can be a difficult one for me. I have ideas that I want to integrate into my game, but find that I struggle to put them on paper in a way that satisfies me.  My creativity ultimately is quite derivative - I troll the web until I find something, or many somethings, that are close to what I envision, then massage them together and end up with something I'm reasonably happy with. A "big picture" view of my game world was one of the things I have never been satisfied with, but eventually the pieces seem to fall into place.

What if this is the known world?

The first piece of the puzzle was a post just after Christmas by Erin Smale of The Welsh Piper. He points to a cool vector-based creation tool that makes island maps, called MapGen2. I tried my hand at making my own world map but... meh. With maps via MapGen, I'm getting what I really wanted.  

A couple of weeks later, a was half-listening to the TV while my kids were watching something and hear a word that flipped a switch in my brain. "Caldera". The gears started to spin, and I began to contemplate a place where the entirety of the world was contained within an enormous volcanic caldera.  Like Crater Lake, only... bigger, with each island a continent in and of itself. 

The World of Caldera

Some time spent cycling through random island maps garnered a dozen or so that I liked gave me enough to work with.  I pulled up Photoshop and set to mixing and matching them, re-sizing, rotating and tweaking to taste. Now I have a starting point and can drop these into Hexographer and move forward.

And so Caldera was born.  Drop a couple of Erin's hex templates over the whole thing and I now have a world map (Atlas Template, at 300 miles/hex) and pulled out a Regional map and from there I chose a single 300 mi hex to focus on for my Trevail campaign map.

This bit is pulled from the middle of that triple-island cluster in the center. We'll see what comes of it all.

Thoughts on Prestige Classes and Other 3isms in Classic D&D

I'm not sure if I've touched on this in the blog or not - maybe back in one of the first posts. I've played D&D in one form or another since '81.  Moldvay ==> 1E ==> 2e from middle school through college.  After that I no longer played tabletop, having no regular group to get together with.  I continued to get my RPG fix via video games, both PC and console, playing "real" D&D games when I could, and eventually played and enjoyed Bioware's Neverwinter Nights I & II. Those two games in particular were based on the 3.0 and 3.5 rulesets - my only experience with either one.  When my then-too-young daughters expressed interest in playing then after seeing me do so, I took the opportunity to introduce them to the tabletop RPG - I mean, who among us would miss that window?

Seeing that 3.5 was too complex, I thought back on my own gaming history and without hesitation realized I wanted the old box set I started with so many years ago as the tool to teach them the game.  A bit of internet research led my to RPGNow and PDFs of the Mentzer basic and expert sets - Moldvay/Cook was not available. That was, what, almost 5 years ago now, and one of the girls still plays.  A weekly BEMCI game I run, and she's recently started playing 4E with friends from school. Turns out one of the teachers runs a 4E game club and the kids are also playing it on their own.  Awesome.

So where is all this going, you ask?  Well, here's the thing. I've found myself firmly settled into the Classic family of D&D - whether B/X, BECMI/RC, Labyrinth Lord or whatever.  For the level of rules crunch I enjoy and have time to commit to memory, those games hit the sweet spot.  But to be honest, if I was a teenager again and had the all but unlimited time to game I did back then, I'd be all over 3.5, or rather Pathfinder now.  All those options and reams of fluff would be heavenly.  I always loved (and still do) reading game books nearly as much as fantasy fiction. It's a bit of a shame that the kids are playing 4E rather than Pathfinder since it would give me an excuse to blow the $35 on a Pathfinder Beginner Box.  I'd love to read it.  I had bought a 4E Starter Box out of curiosity over Essentials - I gave her that to use since I never will, having read through it already.

Damn it - get to the point man! Prestige classes? 3isms?

Ok, ok... Despite not wanting the full level of crunch that 3.5 has to offer, it still have plenty of offer my game.  Skills and feats, races and classes, monsters and magic: these can all be mined for ideas that I can simplify and use in my game. One idea in particular, though, really interests me - prestige classes.  As far back as 2008 was was looking at them and wondering how to incorporate them.  Not just 3.5 style classes, but 2E kits and other "advanced" options for non-standard class choices.  A year ago, the ever prolific map-maker Dyson Logos - who shares scads of other great content on his blog beyond the maps - did a series of  posts on "Glantri-style" prestige classes. The Glantri Gazeteer for Mystara introduced a system of specialized sub-classes - specifically schools of magic - and Dyson took that concept and showed how you could easily use to to introduce any prestige classes you wanted into your game in an amazingly elegant fashion.

I want to use this as the basis for adding some things back into my game.  The RC had a wonky system for Paladins, Knights, Avengers and Druids - being something you could switch to after 9th level.  Interesting idea, but too limiting for my taste.  Cue Glantri as a way to use some of that without creating full class progressions for them.

I can see using the system to add in paladins and knights as specific orders or organizations for fighters or clerics, schools or magic as originally used in Glantri and many other things. Some I'd like to do eventually:

• Assassins - not just for thieves either
• Martial arts styles - no full monk/mystic needed
• Bladesingers or Dwarven Defenders - a little demi-human specialization

Let's show the much-maligned Prestige Class some love, shall we?  It's not that bad an idea old-schoolers!

A Few Minutes of Your Time...

JB over at B/X Blackrazor has put together a little survey in an effort to gather some information on just who is playing D&D, or has in the past.  Not really a marketing survey, but more of a way to gather info on what people are playing or want to play, when they started and so on.

Just fill in the answers in a spreadsheet and email it back to him.  Seems worthwhile, so I'd encourage you to take a few minutes and help him out!

http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2012/02/rpg-gaming-survey-your-help-needed.html

Equipment Packs for Faster Chargen

One of the ideas I've seen around the boards is to use "Equipment Packs" at character generation to speed up that process.  It seems as if picking out all your gear is what slows down chargen, and with something as simple as S&W, I wanted to move things along.  These are likely most useful for pick-up games or introducing new players to the game.  I imagine more experienced players can get set up quickly enough just picking their gear from the limited lists available in WhiteBox.

The packs detailed below as primarily based on "Equipment Packs: A Basic Fantasy Supplement" by Shayne Power, available at basicfantasy.org. I've tweaked them for WhiteBox, and added a Bard option as well. Bear in mind this is still subject to change...

Equipment “Fast Packs”

In order to speed the character creation process for new players, all characters start with the Basic Pack and a class-based pack of their choice. They may also spend their additional gold on the bonus packs, on items from the normal equipment list or to upgrade weapons or armor in their class pack. With the referee's approval, a character may swap a given weapon for one of similar power (e.g. a Battle Axe in place of a Long Sword).

Basic Pack

Backpack; Torches (6); Flint and steel; Waterskin; Bedroll; Rations, dried (7 days); Sack, large; Sacks, small (2); d6x10 gold pieces.

Cleric

Pack 1: Leather armor; Shield; Holy Symbol; Holy water (1 vial); Mace.

Pack 2: Leather armor; Club; Holy water (2 vial); Holy Symbol; Sling; Sling bullets (30).

Fighter

Pack 1: Chain Mail; Shield; Long sword.

Pack 2: Chain Mail; Pole arm.

Pack 3: Leather armor; Long sword; Short bow; Quiver; 20 arrows.

Magic-User

Pack 1: 1 scroll with a random first level spell; Daggers (2); Staff.

Pack 2: Daggers (2); Staff; 50gp.

Thief

Pack 1: Leather armor; Thieves' tools; Short sword; Daggers (2); Rope, silk (50’).

Bard

Pack 1: Leather armor; Daggers(2); Musical instrument of choice.

Bonus Pack 1 (20gp)

Chalk, small bag of pieces; Grappling hook; Rope, hemp (2x50'); Lantern, hooded; Oil (3 flasks); Tent, small (one man).

Bonus Pack 2 – Ready for Anything (10gp)

Glass bottle; Iron Spikes (12); Pole, 10' wooden; Map or scroll case; Mirror (small), steel.

OGL Section 15 Addendum:

Equipment Packs: A Basic Fantasy Supplement Copyright 2009, Shayne Power.

The Pellet Crossbow, or Stonebow

This past summer, while visiting Cleveland, I was able to take the time to visit the fantastic Cleveland Museum of Art, and tour it's utterly amazing Armor Court.  While full of an impressive array of arms and armor, one piece struck me in particular - an odd, double-stringed crossbow labeled as a "pellet crossbow."

Invented in the late 14th century, and reaching the height of popularity by the late 1700s, the pellet crossbow, also known as a stonebow, was used primarily for hunting or target practice.It is a light crossbow, with a double string holding a pouch or pocket.  The stonebow fires small stones, clay pellets or steel bullets, comparable to sling ammunition.

In D&D terms, it is an idea weapon to introduce to a campaign to add to the cleric's list of available weapons.  With greater range than a simple sling, the pellet crossbow increases the cleric's effectiveness in missile combat situations.  Below, I've statted out this fascinating weapon for OD&D/Swords & Wizardry and Classic D&D/Labyrinth Lord, as well as a more detailed work-up for the Weapons Mastery system of Rules Cyclopedia/Dark Dungeons.

OD&D, Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox
Crossbow, Pellet  Damage: 1d6-1   Rate of Fire: 1   Range: 50 ft.  Weight: 5 lb.  Cost: 20 gp
Pellets (20)  Weight: 1 lb.  Cost: 1 gp


B/X, BECMI, Labyrinth Lord
Crossbow, Pellet  Damage: 1d4+1  Rate of Fire: 1  Range: 60/120/180 Weight: 5 lb. Cost: 20 gp
Pellets, Crossbow (10)  Weight: 5 lbs. Cost: 1 gp


Rules Cyclopedia, Dark Dungeons
Crossbow, Pellet  Damage: 1d4+1   Rate of Fire: 1   Range: 50/100/150  Encumbrance: 50 cn  Cost: 40 gp  Notes: a,c,m,s,2H,M
Pellets, Crossbow (30)  Encumbrance: 5 cn  Cost: 1 gp
Level  Range        Damage    Defense    Special
BS     50/100/150   1d4+1     --         --
SK     50/100/150   1d6+2     M:-1AC/1   Stun(s/m)
EX     70/120/160   1d6+4     M:-2AC/2   Stun(s/m)
MS     70/120/160   P=2d4+4   M:-2AC/3   Stun(s/m)
                    S=1d8+4   
GM     80/130/160   P=2d6+4   M:-3AC/3   Stun(s/m)
(P=H)               S=1d10+4

Happy 30th Anniversary!

The Iconic Moldvay Box Set

In 1981, TSR published it's D&D Basic box set, edited by Tom Moldvay.  That famous box with it's dragon adorned cover by Erol Otus was my introduction to the game, as it was for countless others who trace their gaming heritage back to the early 80's.  It's hard to believe that I've been involved with this hobby for 30 years now.

I don't recall particularly being a fan of fantasy when I was young - at least not before I received a copy of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings for Christmas while I was in 6th grade.  The following year, Christmas of 1981, the same relative who had given me that Tolkien box set put yet another box under my tree, and it's contents cemented my love of fantasy for the rest of my life.  There is something special about your first time, and I've commented before about how the artwork from this box is what I see in my head when I think "D&D".

My first fumbling attempts at playing the game began quickly, with me acting as DM while my best friend Tim tackled the Caves of Chaos.  I can't really recall any details, but I remember that Tim and I, plus a few others, got involved with a gaming club that met weekly at our middle school library after school. My gaming continued from there, evolving through AD&D, then 2nd Edition as I played through high school and college. I took off a lot of time after that, not coming back to gaming until my kids were older and showed some interest.

Not surprisingly, I went back to that same basic set that I learned on to teach them the game.  There's some variation now, as I meld the Rules Cyclopedia, the Mentzer box sets, Labyrinth Lord and other bits and bobs into my game, but for all that, it's still "Basic" D&D that I play - coming full circle.  30 years, and I'm right back where I started...

Another Cover Preview?

I'm currently mulling over how I want to share my work.  Do I go the legal route and release under the OGL? I should, yes, but it's a lot more work to create new OGL translations of things in TSR products that I want to use.  They'll be done right that way, of course, and compatible with Labyrinth Lord or Swords & Wizardry, or whatever system I choose to publish for.

Art by Gordon Napier, used with Permission

My quandary is that I don't run a LL or S&W game anymore, I run Mentzer D&D, or Rules Cyclopedia, or however you want to refer to it.  So really, at my table, I want the "real" D&D stuff, since I'm using the "real" D&D rules. Sigh. I have some conversations going on a couple of the forums, so if you ahve any thoughts - pop in and offer your opinion there, or do it here.  There are threads at the Swords & Wizardry forum, Dragonsfoot, and the OD&D Discussion forum, if you care.

In the meantime, here's a little taste of what the cover could be, if I go the illegal pseudo-TSR route and ape the trade dress of the Mystara Gazetteer books.  I have permission to use the art in a free product, so even if I have to do my own original cover, it'll be this awesome pic.  My campaign is drifting towards a fey, Irish sort of mythos, and I think this captures that.

Thoughts?

RIP Dan Wheldon

Dan Wheldon 1978 - 2011

The racing world lost a good man today.  Dan Wheldon died while competing in the IndyCar season finale in Las Vegas.  I met Dan at a couple of races and he was always friendly and a complete gentleman to both me and my girls.  He will be missed.

My heart goes out to his wife and young sons.

TPK = New Beginnings

Begone foul demon!

For the past 5-6 months I have been running a game of Swords & Wizardry:WhiteBox for my kids and some friends.  Sadly, they made some poor decisions last night - their third session in Brave Halfling's fun little "Ruins of Ramat".  In general, the kids have done really well in their tactical decision making and have run when they needed to, to stay alive.  Last night, however, that all came to an end.  The tentacled demonic guardians (see right) proved to much and the party failed to escape.

In a way, this is a good thing, I think.  I started them out using the WB rules to simplify things since a couple of the players were newbies to tabletop RPGs.  My intention all along though, was to roll the campaign over to Classic D&D using the Rules Cyclopedia - my rules set of choice.  We'd discussed it recently and I was getting closer to doing some conversion work on their characters to start using the RC rules.  The TPk actually gives us a chance to start fresh and the kids have ideas for new characters they want to try anyway. At the same time, the discussion of PC choices and what type of game they want to play has allowed me to further develop my view of just what kind of game world Trevail really is and I have some grist for new ideas now.

A TPK isn't a bad thing necessarily - don't be afraid to use it for a new beginning and turn it into a win-win situation for the DM and PCs!

A Style Preview

Below are some mock-up front and back covers for a supplement booklet compiling all my house rules and additions for S&W:WB that I use in my game.

Apologies to Mark Allan for ripping his artwork for the cover.  I do credit him inside. :-)  If I was to use this piece, I realize it could only be for my private use and if I shared this supplement on the blog here, it would need to be art free, or at least have artwork I have permission to use.

I've asked Matt Finch, the author and publisher of S&W about the legality of copying the "trade dress" i.e. cover design of his work and this post is primarily a way to show him what I would like to do.  That said, additional comments are always welcome!