"I react badly to fear. I don't usually have the good sense to run, or hide - I just try to smash whatever is making me afraid. It is a primitive thing, and one I don't question too much." - Harry Dresden
The surprised members of Firetop Crusaders quickly responded as one would when coming face to face with a mummy literally out of thin air - with extreme violence! The party is able to destroy the mummy in a small amount of time. Afterwards Gareth explains that in the other room there are more mummies and the chest that was originally noticed by Helestina. Gareth explains a plan where he will teleport the mummies back into this room one by one to make sure things do not get out of hand. The party agrees and each of the mummies were destroyed in the same way the first was and Gareth is able to recover the treasure in the chest without further incident.
The party continues to explore in a southward direction and during the exploration Enama finds an ornate flute laying on an empty burial ledge. When Enama picks up the flute her mind is flooded with random images, intense sound, and she suffers intense pain dropping the flute. Gareth walks over to where Enama is hollering her paw and staring intently at the dropped flute. Gareth is able to pick up the flute without issue and places it in his bag. Not long after this the party discovers another room filled with sarcophagi and it is agreed that there is probably mummies abound as Gareth suggests doing the teleporting plan again. Everyone agrees and it does not take long for the party to end the unlike of a handful of mummies.
The party then finds a small defensible place to take a rest and go through some of the items they have come across. Harl decides to put on a pair of ordinary looking gloves but quickly realizes his mistake as the gloves refuse to come off when Harl and other members of the party try to remove them. When the effort of trying to remove them was given up, Harl picks up a rock and realizes the gloves disintegrate the rock and assumes the gives have some type of ability to decay inanimate objects.
The exploration of the maze of tunnels continues until the party finds themselves in what appears to be make shift living quarters with random supplies, empty bedrolls, furniture, crates, food, and dirty clothes strewn about. It is not long before the party blunders into a dining area where a group of duergar are eating lunch and quickly sound the alarm at this unexpected intrusion. Chaos instantly erupts and weapons are reached for, more duergar burst through closed doors, and mass combat ensues. Through the chaos of steel, blood, and glory the party prevails and stand victorious over their fallen foes.
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PLAYER NOTES: The teleportation trick with the mummies was hilarious and somehow no one ended up diseased. I do not know how we got that lucky, but I will take it. If I am being honest, as a player I was bummed about downing the cursed gloves because my character Harl should have known better or at least have been more cautious. Though, we all got a good laugh at the jokes about there goes Harl’s ability to self gratify and some other funny comments were made. The maze of the mines continue to be confusing but fun. Makes me want to enlist a map maker like the old days. I would do it but I am usually busy taking notes for these play reports but sailor V!
Well, my friends over at Olde House Rules recently dropped a blog post asking some important and retrospective questions. I really enjoyed the idea so I decided I better write up my response. I might have talked about some of things on various posts scattered throughout the years or at least in an adjacent way.
1) Are character levels as important as we think they are?
The simple and short answer to this is no. The idea and system of levels is not as important as we think they are even though we have been conditioned to think so since the rise of 3.x and beyond. This is especially true today with the main streaming of ttrpg (Dungeons & Dragons in particular). There has been a shift from domain to play at higher levels to an individualistic focus on power with wanting to hit high levels, collection of magical items, builds, and collecting high modifiers. What is more important then levels is progression because adventures should grow, learn new things, and become more competent as they continue their adventures. This progression does not have to be level based, but can be fiction based, item based, and skill based (both character and player).
If we look at characters in a historic sense, the level cap was 10 and some of the longest running characters that were there at the beginning of the hobby (and are still alive today) are level 6 or 7. A perfect example of this is the legendary Chirin Ba Kal who is a Cleric of those levels that works in a fancy palace and is a military officer of high rank. That is some serious paraphrasing and I may have got some details wrong but the point is still there.
2) Exactly how many classes are needed, and can we have to many?
I am going to answer the second part of this question first. The answer is yes, we can have to many. Certain main stream games have historically (and currently suffer) from supplement bloat with a focus on mechanics and and so on. In the height of the 3.x days (it is also returning to this I fear) there were probably hundreds of classes, prestige classes, and templates. All rating from the standard, obscure, to setting specific. That does not even take into account all of the third party and independent offerings. Don't get me twisted though, more power to all of the independent people out there!
As for how many classes are needed? I think at the core, there needs to be enough classes to cover all of the archetypes so a good ballpark would probably be around 4-6. Though, the classes need to be fluid enough where re-flavoring them with a different name, equipment, and fiction can open up various options. Most of the additional classes are just background changes. I think where the need comes in for additional classes (but designers should proceed with caution) is creating setting or regional specific classes. I think a really good example of what I am talking about is what Shadow Dark did with their Cursed Scroll Zines (#1-3). Simple and full of flavor - the mechanics of those classes had more to do with style and flavor then mechanical badassery. Though, I think some of my favorite class presentations come from Black Hack Second Edition.
3) Is sophistication good or bad for the role playing hobby?
I think this is definitely one of those loaded questions and is probably worthy of an essay on its own. Though, instead of getting in the weeds of the matter I will speak from experience. I am not a fan of the endless dungeon crawl - I prefer a sandbox style where there is plenty of city (use the term lightly) and wilderness in between exploring those dark places. Some of the most fun I have had has been when the encounters are not guaranteed to be a meat grinder and there is a hint of whimsical thrown in the mix. Like coming across a group of skeletons playing dice and complaining about the noise the adventurers are making because it will irritate the spiders or finding a random merchant quirky merchant and so on. I will agree an amount of realism is important to enforce setting and what have you but I cannot count the times that the game has been put on pause or immersion has been broken because of a player bring up real world physics, ecology, and some type of lore that argues about how certain creatures can be found where they are encountered and so on. These pauses and breaks in immersion also come from the GM/DM's side to look something up, discourage a clever but ludicrous idea or plan, rifle through various supplements for a ruling, and so on. I think the level of sophistication requirements will vary from table to table and person to person but I strongly believe a healthy mix is the correct recipe. Games should be full of whimsy, magic, and memories that will last a lifetime.
4) How did gaming's early rivalries impact the Hobby's development?
I have sat here and started at my screen to answer this question for a long time. This questions refers to initial schism between Gygax and Arnseson. A lot of has been written about the early history, the lawsuits, and the fallout. There are books like Slaying the Dragon, Playing at Worlds, other books, even the entirety of the Court Documents about the lawsuits can be found at the National Archives in Chicago. There is even the original D&D manuscript in these documents. The truth is that Gygax, Arneson, and everyone else involved are humans. Humans are inherently flawed, emotional, and make mistakes. There was a lot of personal and business mistakes made throughout the origins of the hobby and as we know it today. To answer the question, the schisms created different companies, games, and takes in the early hobby. Whether this was a better out come then what would have happened if the schisms did not happen, I do not know. I do know people across the board with have been happier then dealing with all of the ugly that happens in situations like these.
5) Rolling dice is a big deal; but just how important are they?
Let's face it, without some type of randomization or way to determine effort for tasks that have a chance a failure then it just becomes group fiction. There is nothing wrong with group fiction but if a game is that it should be up front about it. Now, there are some great diceless games out there (diceless does not mean resolution free) like the classic Amber, Lords of Gossamer & Shadow (which is a spiritual successor to Amber), Diceless Dungeons by Olde House Rules, Undying by Magpie Games, and Dust Devils. There is also a host of games out there that use poker cards, tokens, Tarot cards, and other means of task resolution. So, rolling dice is a big deal as it is part of the experience and your dice (along with your character sheet) are your totem. Though are they more or less important then other means of task resolution? Probably not. Give me a couple D6's, a pencil, and a notebook any day of the week.
6) How have current fashions affected how characters are depicted?
The short answer is yes. Modern fashion as long since affected the hobby for better or worse depending on your point of view. It has changed from the images The Hobbit has put in our heads to the black and white art of early Dungeons and Dragons handbooks/manuals to the more modern "rockstar" art of the modern iterations of fantasy games across the board. We saw this change in 2000 and then with the rise of self-publishing is when the art change cemented. I think another big change over the last twenty-five years is that the industry expectations (or standards) changed from setting provoking black and white art to coffee table books that are busting at seems with full color art on glossy pages.
7) Nostalgia gets a bad reputation; but could it be important?
I think the word Nostalgia and Boomer gets thrown around a lot and are commonly used with a negative connotation. Especially the latter. Nostalgia is used in the negative way when I have had discussions with newer gamers or ones that have only played a certain game or a certain edition. If I am being honest, I think the Nostalgia deeply hits for the simpler times when technology was not a distraction, when you did not need massive rule books, when it was just pencils, paper, and friends. It was about connection and having a good time. I have a friend of mine who pokes fun at me about focusing on older games, clones, the style of gaming that took place with the Twin City Gamers, and my new found love for fountain pens (it is a well known fact I have a minor addiction to office supplies). What makes Nostalgia important is that in reminds us of the spirit of gaming (and inspires us to keep the beacons lit) and trick is not to combine modern innovation with that spirit.
8) Are inherently evil orcs always racist? Or is there more to the story?
Well, there is more to the story and I did a deep dive on this subject here. At the end of the day, it comes down to how they are presented but I am strong advocate of there is no such thing as an inherently evil orc.
9) When did D&D's amateur age end, and where was its last stand?
We went from booklets printed out in the basement (or at print shops) to the semi-professional (for modern standards) of AD&D that kept the eccentric style of art (for the most part) to the rise of a new industry standard with the release of 3rd edition in 2000. This all happened with a time span of about 10 years. I think the last stand can be argued in two different areas. The first point could be argued that it took place when Gygax produced AD&D in the 8.5x11 format so the books could be on Dalton booksellers shelves as that was how Gygax was measuring success. The second point that can be argued for the last stand could be the era of AD&D where the art was still eccentric and at times evocative. Though, with that being said, there is good news in the modern times of gaming. Due to the prominence of self-publishing, a new amateur age is rising the like sun and with it, bringing the hopes of dreams of gamers across the globe.
The party returns to Sirabolter beaten, bruised, and treasure heavy. After spending a few days to recover and taking care of some shopping, the party decides to honor their agreement to investigate the mines. The mines quickly fork into two paths and the party makes a decision to take the second path. As the party goes deeper, they find themselves surrounded by thick spider webs and Helestina uses some fire to burn them away. It was not long after this that Harl discovered an oddly smooth wall compared to the rest of the rough hewn tunnels. Gareth uses some of this psychic abilities to remove the smooth stone wall which turns out to be a hidden door.
The party quickly finds themselves face to face with two constructs where their hands end in a drill and a hammer. The party turns the constructs to rubble before they even get a chance to attack.
The party presses on and comes across a room with duergar guards and a large duergar statue carved in robes holding a broken arrow. The ensuing battle is quick and decisive in the parties favor before finds an another hidden door which opens up into a circular room. The circular room boasts a beautiful alabaster statue of a crowned dwarf and an old chest. As Enama explores the room she triggers a mechanism which causes two stone plates to spring together separating the room into two sections as well as opening another door. Enama is able to flip out of the way but Gareth gets caught between the slabs moments after he teleports into the new revealed room. Gareth’s excitement about the trap escape is short lived as he finds himself separated from the rest of the party and facing three statues of what appears to be dwarf kings standing guard over three sarcophagi. Gareth makes a decision to open one which triggers the other lids to open as up rises a mummy from each of them. In a moment of quick thinking or panic, Gareth grabs a hold of the mummy right in front of him and teleports both himself and the mummy to other side side of the newly formed wall where the the rest of his companions were trying to figure out how to help Gareth…
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PLAYER NOTES: There was a lot of suspense exploring the mines and the mines were set up like a maze as we all backtracked a few times, got turned out, and even ended up in some of the same areas before making progress. Secret doors are always fun and the presence of duergar and interesting technology/constructs had the players spewing all kinds of different theories. The room was the trap where it separated Gareth was a funny gasp moment for everyone else, especially when the mummies work up and he ended up teleporting the mummy with him into the middle of the rest of the characters. This session ended on that note.
I would like to take a minute and talk about what almost was. Ideas I had about the core resolution mechanic and some aspects of the secret rule book that almost made into the final version but ended up on the cutting room floor for various reasons.
It is important to remember and what a lot of people fail to realize is that Original Dungeons and Dragons, Blackmoor, Barons of Braunstein, Bunnies and Burrows, and Tekumel were just Gygax, Arneson, Wesely, Barker, and Dr. Robinson/Dr. Sustare's house rules. Thus, the Secrets of Arn's included Secret Rule Book and Procedures are my house rules.
*Puts soapbox away nonchalantly.*
Core Mechanic
I originally had my heart set on using an attribute based roll under d% system. There would have been 6 attributes and you would define your attributes by rolling a pair of d10s (percentage dice) of different color. One color would represent the tens place and the other color would represent the ones place. Attributes would be determined by rolling the d% dice six times and the results would be your score. If any result was under 25%, then the player could bump up that attribute to 25%.
If a character wanted to accomplish something where the dice needed to hit the table, they would need to roll the d% dice and be looking for the results of equal to or lower then their attribute score.
For combat, there would be side based initiative and the characters would react to their opponents actions which would require the players to make an appropriate attribute roll to avoid their opponents action. This makes the game player facing.
Boons would increase the range by 10% and setbacks would decrease the range by 10%. Boons and Setbacks do not stack and they cancel each other out.
If a character ever possesses a score 100% or over, the player would still roll and if doubles appeared, the action or attempt would fail.
Tags and Skills
This design idea was before I revamped character creation and personal advancement was even a thought. Though, thinking about it know I would handle it like this. If a player can bring a tag or skill to into relevance in a situation they would be allow a re-roll if the player did not like the initial result if the Referee agreed. If a tag and skill was relevant for the same task, then a second re-roll would be allowed.
Hit Points & Damage
Characters would have had a fixed amount of hit points and damage would follow this paradigm:
Light Weapons: Roll 2d6 and choose the lowest
Medium Weapons: 1d6
Heavy Weapons: Roll 2d6 and choose the highest
Two Weapon Fighting: Allows attacks to be made with a Boon
Armor
Armor would provide temporary hit points and would need to be repaired or replaced.
Meta Currency
Historically I have had great experience with meta currency in its various forms and I personally enjoy it a lot. Though, I decided that it is against the design philosophy for this game and it was the most recent (this week) thing to end up on the cutting room floor.
After wiping off the troll blood from the parties faces, the party once against continues up the mountain. after sometime Clarence notices large nests on the rocky outcroppings of the mountains up above the party. Claren whispers the party about moving carefully and how everyone should make as little noise as possible. Despite the best efforts, enough noise is made that alerts the winged humanoid creatures that were not noticed previously. A group of nesting harpies fly down to greet the party but the harpies quickly finds themselves outmatches and eventually all of the harpies fall to the blades and magics of the Firetop Crusaders.
Dusting themselves off, the party continues their journey up the mountain and the trail quickly becomes steeper and steeper. As the party struggles with the incline. Shadowgrumble grumbles and informs A’anri about dragon ants just in time to warn the party before reaching the top of the mountain where a large cave is located. As the party sets foot into the clearing before the cave, they are met with a horde of these dragons ants spewing acid and trying to make the party their lunch. Gareth yells to the party to stay back as Gareth charges into the mass of the Dragon ants, takes some acid to the face, and creates a killing field of psychic energy that decimates the fire ants colony. The rest of the party is quickly jumps to the aid of Gareth to make sure Gareth does not become lunch for the remaining dragon ants. The party enjoys a moments of calm as the last dragon ants falls and a discussion is held to how they are going to deal with the cave and more importantly, what is probably lurking in the cave.
Vladimir sneaks into the cave and notices three cave bears and a sleeping giant moments before the cave bears notice Vladimir and the cave bears roars wake the sleeping giant who bellows in frustration and rage. The rest of the party hears the growls and the giant and instantly rush into the cave mouth to come to the aid of Vladimir who finds himself cornered by the save bears moments before the giant launches Vladimir across the cave with one mighty blow. As the party deals with the charging cave bears the giant starts hurling boulders at them which quickly makes the party realize everyone needs to spread out as the party continues to focus on down the cave bears first.
During the melee, the giant causes a massive rockslide that buries Vladimir and A’anri which in turn takes them out of the fight. Harl realizes that the giant is smarter the average giant as the giant continues to duck behind some stone outcropping to use as cover after throwing stones at the party and calls out we need to get closer to get rid of giant’s advantage. Gareth takes the initiative and employs dimension swap to remove the stone the giant was hiding behind as the giant takes out Gareth with a blow from the giant’s club. Before the giant can lift this giant’s club for another attack Enama charges the gaint as Helestina casts a spell that increases Enama’s size moments before her fists smash into the giants face.
The giant reacts with exploding gemstones that only leave Helestina and Harl standing in the dust. Helestina finds some cover as Harl draws the giant’s attention so Helestina can safely put the giant to sleep. As the giant falls to the floor, Harl delivers the final blow with a point blank eldritch blast ending the giants existence.
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PLAYER NOTES: Oh wow, this session was filled with back to back major encounters definitely designed to reduce everyone’s resources before the big battle at the end. We defiantly got lucky with harpies as everyone made their saves against the harpies songs and the death field destroyed the horde of dragons ants that saved everyone some serious attrition. The Dice Gods were not Vladimir’s friend as the stealth roll was completed fumbled which caused a rush to action before a plan could be created or even the thought of an attempt to parley with the giant. The DM used some good tactics with the giant they kept us at bay and the giant was able to use his own attacks as well as lair triggers to pick us apart. There were also some critical hits that made the situation worse and I was almost sure there was going to be a total party kill. When all of the dust settled, it was me and Helestina were left but we were hanging on by a thread and ended up with some lucky rolls of our own. After the giant was downed, time was spent reviving the other party members and searching the rest of the cave until the treasure was found.
I have not put in a lot of major effort of tracking down my "Grail" games in a long time. My list of grail games is small and usually includes games I had when I was younger then went the way of the dinosaurs for various reasons or games that did not survive one of my purges which I highly regret.
Due to happenstance and some serious luck, I have been able to acquire a good number of my grail games over the last month. This has made me overly happy with lots of feelings of content. There are still a few games on my grail list but I guess those will come in time.
For those of you at home that does not know what a grail is, it is a highly sought after game (or other object) that is difficult to come by for numerous reasons but the common reasons include being out of print, low print runs, and popular when it was released so people are reluctant to part with them for those who have then. The term grail comes from the "Holy Grail" and the epic quests that follow its hunt. Same could be said about Excalibur and so on.
1.The First Fantasy Campaign by Dave Arneson: Well, I do not know what else can be said about this legendary tome that houses Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign from the early years. This includes the maps and the various dungeon levels that were explored and have yet to be explored. I have owned the pdf copy for a while now (which I printed out and bound for easier reading) but the original copy has always alluded me because people like to sell their copies for around $300-600 dollars and that is just to rich for my blood and people should be ashamed of themselves. I got lucky and ran into (online meeting) a person who had a copy and was willing to barter for it. The copy is in a good condition except for pages 51-56ish that have come free from the staples. I have looked into getting in rebound in a hardback but I am unsure if the paper is going to be to brittle and the rebinding place is about a 45 minute drive from where I live. Still do not know what I am going to do about that aspect but regardless, I am beyond exciting to have an original copy in my hands. Sadly, the PDF has been removed by Judges Guild for reasons I am not privy to.
2. Dust Devils: Stories in the Old West:This game was initially released in 2002 (the same year the game won a bunch of awards including Best Indue Game) and got a Revenged Edition in 2007 - I common consensus is that the changes made the game even more enjoyable. I first encountered this game circa 2009 when I played in a three part story ran by someone at a local store. This was one of the first "story" focused games that I experienced and probably was one of the first of the "story game" genre in general. It was also an excellent entry into the “conflict
resolution” era of game design. That is, folks play and describe and
build toward a conflict, and when a facilitator decides a conflict is at
hand, then you stop narrating and switch over to the resolution game. The game does not used dice, but uses a deck of cards and some poker chips. I have to say, playing Dust Devils was one of the most rewarding gaming experiences I have and there intense experiences when facing my character’s Devils. The thing about
your Devil is that not only do you name the dark drive (misogyny, greed,
racism, cold-bloodlessness, whatever), you also write a little sentence
about your character’s perspective on why they are the way they are.
Same with your past and present lines. It is a great and innovative process. But I digress, after I played in the short little adventure I was not able to acquire a copy at the time due to finances and then as the years went on the game sold out and became hard to find. Once again, I got lucky that I ran into Matt Snyder (digitally) and he was willing to look around for a copy and sign it even! I really can't wait to get this to the table.
3. Toon Deluxe Edition: This game was initially released by Steve Jackson Games in 1984, had a handful of supplements, and the Deluxe Edition was released in 1991 that included all the stuff from Toon Silly Stuff, Son of Toon, and Toon Strikes Again. This is one of my old Game Master's favorite filler game when there was not enough players to play in the regular campaign or would be a quick pick up game on a just hanging out night. I never ended up getting the game at the time and actually completely forgot about its existence until I cam across a youtube video talking about it, which increased my nostalgia by 9,000! I then set out on a quest to try to track down a copy but all of the copies I came across were going for obscene prices but by dumb luck I came across someone selling a lot of books and this was included and the person was willing to let it go for a reasonable price that I could not pass up.
4.Vampire the Masquerade (2nd Edition, First Printing): Believe it not (I am sure I have mentioned this somewhere on this blog) that my first role playing experience was not Dungeons and Dragons and had nothing to do with the fantasy genre. I cut my ganging teeth on Vampire the Masquerade 2nd edition at a comic store in the early nineties. I was actually there for an anime convention and to play Magic and I noticed this group in the corner with various vampire books and character sheets. The people at the table noticed my interest and invited me over, explained what they were doing, and I guess my eyes must have lit up because they invited me to play and helped me make a character. My first character was an Assamite named Val - he was a righteous bastard. Anyway, I actually still have my copy but the pages were falling out of the binding and for awhile I have been looking for a mint copy that is safe to read through without causing more damage. I was able to acquire a copy in mint condition and an easy price and I am happy as a vampire in a blood bank.
5. Basic Role-Playing - An Introductory Guide: I have had a handful of great experiences with various BRP games but outside that handful, a lot of the time the experience fell flat. This failure had to do more with the over complication of the system then anything else. When I learned that the BRP system originally existed in a 16-page booklet, I was ecstatic but quickly found it was something that was hard to get as Chaosium itself did not sell any copies and claimed to not even possess a digital copy. I came to find out that there were multiple printings of this booklet that was included in some of the original box sets of Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, and Worlds of Wonder. By some dumb luck, I was able to acquire two copies for under $15 each.
These are my current acquisitions at the moment. For those that are interested I am still in the hunt for:
Vampire the Masquerade 1st Edition
Dogs in the Vineyard
Dune: Chronicles of the Imperium (Last Unicorn Games)
TSR Presents Deities and Demigods (1st-2nd Printing with the Cthulhu and Melnibonean pantheons)
As the party recovers after a long rest on the mountain the party decides to head back up the mountain and it does not take long for the party to encounter a band of Yeti people that was led by the Chief. The party members were able to seize the initiative and slay the chieftain of the Yeti people. After the chieftain fell, the rest of the chieftains war band retreated and the party decided to let them go without further incident.
The party eventually came across a section of the winding path that is overgrown with plans and vines. Harl stops the party to assess the situation and throws a stone into the overgrowth which does not elicit a reaction. Gareth then sends one of the his conjured pets to investigate the overgrowth area and as soon as the pet boar entered the area the plants and vines came alive and started to attack the boar. The party quickly responds and decides the best course of action is to clear out the plants for safety which they do without much trouble.
Once the plants were cleared, the up the mountain continues but as the party rounds the bend, they discover a pair of basilisk’s fighting over a carcass and with the last encounter with one of these beasts (including the horrified look of the statues) fresh in everyone’s mind the party proceeds with caution but acts quickly. Gareth quickly sets up a teleportation trap as the rest of the party closes their eyes to engage with the mystical beasts. The basilisks charge but before the creatures are able to make contact with anyone the basilisks are teleported right off the mountain and drop to their dooms.
Before the party is able to round the next section of the winding mountain path, Helestina notices a huge hulking shadow and calls a warning to the rest of the party which respond quickly to getting off quick attacks before the creature shows itself in a fit of rage. Gareth recognizes the creature instantly and calls out troll! The party focuses their efforts as Helestina slows the creatures natural abilities with fire before the party is able to slay the creature permanently.
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PLAYER NOTES: This session was a lot of back to back encounters and we got lucky with both the basilisks and the troll. The basilisks because of Gareth’s shenanigans and then the Troll as Gareth’s player succeeded on the roll to know what the creature was. This defiantly helped everyone deal with the regeneration aspect of the troll instead of us figuring out what was going on after awhile.
Well, If I am honest, over the summer my inspiration for Secrets of Arn kind of dwindled. Then life got in the way and the project just say on the back burner simmering for a bit. I also got distracted by a few other projects as you do.
It was not until I sat down to start working on my "Appendix N" for Secrets of Arn that the inspiration started to come trickling back. I just started with a list of movies which had me thinking, "I need to re-watch some of these" and so I did.
Though, what really burst the dam was my two recent conversations with Jeff Berry. I always deeply enjoy my conversations with him and just talking about history and sharing stories had my mind going in a million directions at once.
This resulted in me taking some time to work on the project, lose some sleep, hitting the books, and going over everything I have written so far.
Our conversations reiterated over and over again to keep
it simple and to keep things moving as fast as possible and in as real
time as possible. He also explained how basically the importance of die
rolls come down to success or failure with a base chance of 50/50 and
you adjust from there as needed.
I have done some probability crunching and using math I haven't used in
awhile, as well as the handy dandy anydice I decided to reduce math on
the core mechanic. Every base roll is 2d6 and you need a result of 5 or 6
on either side to succeed. This base roll can be affected by a boon
(from tags, the situation, and so on) which is basically advantage and
3d6 are rolled looking for the same 5 or 6s. The same base roll can also
be affected be a setback which is basically disadvantage and a 1d6 is
rolled looking for the same 5 or 6. Saving dice use the same - which
reminds me I need write about that. But I digress, this keeps quick,
simplex avoids math so no forgetting to carry the one, and more kid
friendly.
The
probability of success breaks down to 1d6/33 percent, 2d6/67 percent,
and 3d6/82 percent. It makes characters feel competent but still there
is a fair chance of failure. Below are the Anydice results of the probability:
UPDATE REGARDING PROBABILITY:A few people reached out to me to let me know that I got my probability wrong. I probably used anydice wrong and for complicated things, it is not exactly user friendly. Anyway, the updated percentages for looking for a single success (that is probably where I went wrong) are 1d6/33%, 2d6/66%, and 3d6/70%. The only big changes were in the latter two, but I like the probability better.
I guess I should of mentioned this first, but I adjusted character
creation as well. The character creation questions have been dropped
down to five, adjusted and called tags (this is one of the areas where
boons can be utilized). The fifth tag is actually a character flaw as no one is perfect - the flaw can be called in for a boon but the Referee can call it in for a setback if the flaw makes since in the fiction. There are additional questions that deal with
equipment and what not. I think this adjustment has created a more focused character creation process. This process ends up producing characters that are tied into the game mechanically and have a cleaner narrative focus.
Speaking of character creation, the characters special ability tag now has some expanded examples.
I have also had to make some tough design decisions in the invisible rule book section of the project.
Goodbye Priests
The players first tag choice during character creation is basically a choice of class and initially I had Priest as an option. After some careful consideration I decided to remove this option as the roots of the fantasy hobby did not have them and I feel like being a Priest is more of a vocation then anything else. I also did not want to deal with divine magic in my design as well as I wanted to remove magical healing outside of some not so effective healing herbs. This keeps hits as more of a resource management and retreat a positive tactic as natural healing is slow.
Hello Silver Standard
Initially, I was doing my best to avoid any type of coin counting and I created what I thought was a pretty intuitive narrative treasure system using treasure points to abstract wealth above and beyond basic necessities. Though, after thinking about it and reading historical sources I am going with the silver standard and various prices have been adjusted to match the silver standard directly. Some things were not multiplied for fiction reasons. In addition, I made it a point to state that coin in actual circulation is low and the treasure table reflects this.
In addition to the above, outside of a limited selection of potions and scrolls, magical items cannot be bought, should be rare, should be weird, and be useful in various situations. The writing and procedures reflects this.
Those Dang Upstart Wizards and their Fireballs
Historically games had a low magic focus and Blackmoor specifically attempted to avoid dealing with magic on the player character side. This is why each character had a unique ability. This was the approach I was going to take because lets face it, from both a fiction and a game design point of view, magic can be tricky - especially on the balance side. Though, I was recently told the story of how magic really came into the lime and that story goes something like this during a session:
"I cast fireball" said the World's first Wizard (Peter Gaylord)
"Wait what?" asked the Arneson.
"I cast fireball, that is what wizards do." said the Wizards first Wizard (Peter Gaylord)
That is when the Arneson decided they needed rules for magic and because of these dang upstart wizards, I figured it would be important to get ahead of the fireball so to speak. In addition to this, I personally love the idea of the classic wizard like Gandolf, Merlin, and Rincewind. With all the trappings of the pointy hats, spell books, and handful of parkour tricks. I also really like the idea of how the magic create tattoos on a wizard and these arcane tattoos grow as the wizards power grow. Thus, this is what I decided to base my idea of wizards off of.
I also knew if I was going to include magic, I wanted it powerful and limited in various aspects but I did not want to rely on the classic Vatican magic because (SPOILER ALERT) Secrets of Arn has no levels. So, to keep the classic feel going, I carefully selected 14 well known wizard spells and I added two spells that could be considered on the divine side (Banish and Speak with the Dead). Then I added a system to constrict the usage of spells and within these limitations, if a wizard is lucky, they may be able to cast the same spell a couple of times per day. Wizards also only start with one spell and yes fireball is one of 16 spells.
Monsters, Oh My!
I was originally just going to include a simple monster generator that can be used for all kinds of adversaries and leave it at that. Though, in the end I decided that I am going to include some sample monsters for quick use. This decision came about after I adjusted character creation as now adversaries may have access to tags and how some special abilities may allow a save. I am still going to include the monster generator but a typical entry in the final product is going to look like this:
Name (# of Hits)
Brief Description
Tags:
Equipment:
Advancement
As I stated previously, there is no level system built into Secrets of Arn. This is because traditionally there was not a level system as we know it today in modern games and a lot of the advancement happened organically by the characters moving up into social status, influence, power, and wealth. This is commonly known as domain play where characters become lords, ladies, generals, and the like. These characters when the reach the height of social power are usually retired as they are to important to go around "thumping bandits" and new characters are created to go on adventures but the original characters remain alive as NPC's that the player can occasionally slip back into to make decisions in the realm.
With that being said, I wanted to create an option for advancement to show some type of personal growth but once again I wanted to keep it limited and avoid bean counting. Advancements are based on amount of sessions participated in, a character can gain a max number of 9 advancements, and the choices when taking an advancement include gaining hits (to a certain number), learning a new skill that is not related the characters tags, and the ability to learn a new spell.
An important thing to note about skills is that they are not combat oriented and are more vocation an role play focused.
The advancement rulings are not going to be placed in the Invisible rule book section, they are going to be placed in the procedure section.
Encumbrance
Resource management is an important aspect of gaming for me and was an important aspect for the founders. I think this is in an aspect that become over complicated and I did not want to mess with math in dealing with item weight and the like. So, I decided on something simple. All characters have twelve backpack slots and all equipment take a single slot. This includes things like a single torch, a bundle of arrows, and so on. Characters can also carry (that are not included in one of the twelve slots) are a small personal items such jewelry or a pipe with tobacco. This is in addition to a coin purse that can hold up to 250 coins. if more coins are carried, they take up a backpack slot for every increment of 250. If a character decides to carry more then 12 items, all physical actions are completed at a setback.
As the party continues up the trail, they come across their old friend Stephononcles who looked defeated and like Stephonocles have had a difficult few nights out in the wilderness. After catching up, Anari notices some smoke out in the distance and the party decides to follow the smoke as they trek down a trail into a wooded butte that split from the main trail that was partially hidden by some bushes.
As the party heads down the trail they notice three large white dogs keeping pace with them on the side of the woods before encountering a band of the Alpine Cavemen. Harl offers council about the benefits of retreat and starts to move back up the trail before the Alpine Cavemen sounds the charge and the dogs attack as Vladimir charges in blindly.
The rest of the party are left with no choice but to charge in to attempt to save Vladimir from being surrounded as more and more Alpine Cavemen join the battle that were hidden in the treeline. As the battle rages on, Stephonocles watches Vladimir fall to the Alpine Cavemen's blows and Stephonocles fights his way towards Vladimir to heal but as soon as Vladimir starts to get up another Alpine Cavemen drops Vladimir again along with Enama. At the end of the battle Harl, Gareth, and Helenista are the only left standing and they spend some time dragging their unconscious friends to safety before helping the fallen members wake up. After a quick conversation, it is decided for Gareth to go on a stealth mission to discover what lies at the end of the smoke trail in the sky.
When Gareth returns, Gareth reports that the smoke trail ends at a rather large Alpine Cavemen village and how the party should probably head back up the trail and leave the village alone. The party decides to go back to the large rock where they fought the hill giant to camp for the night with the safety of cover.
The next day, the party nearly avoids a rock slide as they are noticed by two small red dragons out for breakfast. The party quickly responds with ranged attacks and spells before the dragons can get into chomping range. Enama and Anari have the honor of the final blows with fist and bolt.
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PLAYER NOTES: It was fun to be reunited with one of the guest players ala "Stephonocles". The player always gets 100% into character which is always fun. The battle with the dogs and the Alpine Cavemen was a cluster and could have been avoided but decisions were made by other players that negated the effectiveness of the retreat. I thought it is going to be a TPK but we were able to squeak by and survive. The DM explained at the end of the session is that the DM has been heavy handed with random encounters to help us get to the level we should be at for the continuing journey.
So, as I teased earlier in this post I have been working on Sword & Backpack: Reforged and through lack of sleep and sheer stubbornness plus a healthy dose of inspiration the hack has been completed.
I have even ordered a proof copy from Lulu but after doing so, I got it in my head that the blank note pages I included (to meet Lulu's minimum page requirement for global distribution) were not that professional so I am working on adding dot matrix pages instead, I have a friend of mine working on that as I type this. This means that I will need to order a new proof copy if I am able to work out the changes. I may just be paranoid and the blank pages titled Note may be just fine but that is the current situation for the print edition of Sword & Backpack: Reforged.
With that being said, I have also made updates from the proposed version discussed earlier to the final version. These core updates are:
I have reduced math completely. There is now an advantage mechanic in place in specific situations. This will keep things simple and make interpreting the rolls faster.
Combat is now all or nothing. Whoever wins the roll off is allowed to deal a hit. This keeps combat fast, dynamic, and fixes action/turn economy in specific situations such as engaging a BBG.
Adventurer hits have been increased.
The final version across the board also includes:
9 pieces of art
A sample adventuring party of 3
A character sheet
The PDF version will be 20-24 pages long that include note pages (US Letter) so it can be printed out in booklet style at home or at a print shop. If I do not include the cover art page, it will be 20. If I do include the cover art page it will be 24.
The POD version is going to be 34 pages with 17 note or dot matrix pages that will be US Letter softback perfect bound.
Finally, here is a sneak peak of the character sheet created by the talented Mr. Gone.
The begins their morning trekking up the Giant Mountain and as the morning wears on, Harl and Enama notice some movement by a large rock and Enama, Harl, and Vladimir split off into the bush to try to flank the possibly enemies. Enama, Harl, and Vladimir discovers a hill giant posed to ambush the rest of party walking up the main trail. Vladimir is able to sneak up on the hill giant and land an opening blow as the rest of the party engages the hill giant and the giant can barely respond to the onslaught before the giant finds the sweet embrace of death.
The party cleans their blades and continue up the mountain before they find a clearing off of the main trail to make camp at the end of the day. During the early evening, the party notices some chittering and Anari looks up into the sky and notices what appears to be an oddly shaped humanoid with wings closing in at the parties location. The party readies for the attack as they scan the night sky.
Helenista announces to everyone that she sees four the creatures heading their way moments before they bat creatures land amidst the camp. The sounds of battle echo through the night sky as the party makes quick work of the bat creatures and the rest of the passes without incident.
The next morning the party continues up the trail that gradually becomes narrower as the party encounters a group of Alpine Cavemen blocking the path. As Harl is trying to parley with the Alpine Cavemen, Vladimir issues a challenge to fight that turns the situation into aggressive negotiations. Harl sighs and mumbles, "Here we go again" as the sound of steel breaking leather rings off of the mountain side before the party ends the lives of the cavemen.
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PLAYER NOTES: I do not have much to say here. It was a quick and to the point session. My character Harl was trying hard to parley with the Alpine Cavemen and was hoping to even to see if they would be willing to help. That idea was ended quickly and I was more then a little frustrated.
This is a game that I have had my eye on for a long time but I missed the initial release and it sold out (the first printing was 500 copies). I had to wait around for the second printing. I have always been a fan of Westerns and that whole era as a soft spot in my heart as it is one one of the settings where the world still feels bug and unknown. Just like the age of sail.
The Author states that the game was inspired in flavor by by movies such as Dead Man (1995), Ravenous (1999), Bone Tomahawk (2015), The Hateful Eight (2015), El Diablo (1990), Gallowwalkers (2012), The Quick and the Dead (1995), The Lighthouse (2019), The Witch (2015), and I Sell the Dead (2008).
As far as the term or setting Acid Western goes, I had to do some quick googling and have a few discussions with other people to understand it as it is a new term/style/setting for me. A consistent google result for the definition is this:
"Acid westerns are a unique subgenre of Western that emerged during the 1960s and 1970s.Pauline Kael first coined the term in a 1971 issue of the New Yorkerduring her review ofAlejandro Jodorowsky's 'El Topo.'
Acid Westerns combine classical revisionist Western motifs with the
cinematic excesses of Spaghetti Westerns, incorporating LSD-inspired
countercultural narratives to create a provocative, drugged-up version
of the American Frontier"
With that being said, the "big picture" view can be summarized as follows (it is easy to replace filmmaker with Gamer Master and so on):
Acid Westerns are a unique subgenre that combines classical Western
motifs with cinematic excess and countercultural narratives.
These films use symbolism to explore themes of spirituality, masculinity, femininity, and the journey towards death.
Acid Westerns provide filmmakers with a space to experiment with
narrative and image, challenging the audience to think differently and
explore deeper philosophical questions.
Disclaimer: I was provided a physical copy for review purposes from Games Omnivorous.
Presentation: Right off the bat this book is layed out and presented in a way that I have not seen before. The first thing that stood out to me is the cover - the cover feels like it is made out out of thick solid cardboard - but that is not the material. In addition, the book sports an open sewn spine that is sealed with glue but allows the book to lay completely flat. For all intents and purposes it is just has durable as a book with a closed spine. I have not had any personal issues with durability or have I heard of any complains about the books durability from any of my online sources.
The other major thing that stands out to me is the page layout. The page layout is such that it feels like you are reading directly from a newspaper in the frontier. Handling and reading the book provides a unique immersive experience.
The book clocks in at 66 pages that include rule reference sheets and an adventure.
Character Creation: Character creations follows a type of life path system where the player rolls or can choose results fro various tables that bring the character to life.
Resolution: The core mechanic boils down to rolling a ability check, which is 1d20 + Ability Modifier versus a Difficulty Rating. The standard Difficulty Rating is 12 and unless otherwise listed, that is the Difficulty Rating for most things. There is a Difficulty Rating table that provided benchmarks to adjust the Difficulty Rating up or down.
It is written in black and white, that successful or not, no roll of the dice should stop the action or the story.
If a character has a skill that relates to the course of action and the GM agrees, the Player can make the check with advantage. A character can only have six skills and when a player rolls a natural 20 on a skill check they can opt to learn a new related skill instead of earning an Ace.
An interesting thing to note about the resolution system is that the system is player facing and NPC's do not roll 99.9% of the time. The characters react to what is going on around them.
Combat follows these steps:
Roll a d6 every round, one a 1-3 the enemies go first, and on a 4-6 the PC's go first.
On a turn you can move and take an action. The actions include melee attack, ranged attack (not a gun), shoot a gun (in melee), shoot a gun (tough shot), or do something else. If you are rolling multiple damage dice, you can assign one to different opponents within range.
The Wrestling Clause: When players and NPC's are wrestling around or in a bar fight, instead of the players rolling twice for attack and defense, they just roll for attack and if the player succeeds they hit their opponent and if the player fails, the opponent hits them. If one side or the other is outnumbered, then +1/-1 DR depending on who is outnumbering who.
Rinse and Repeat as needed.
Death, Dying and Healing:
After a Scuffle: Heal 1d4. +1 for each - smoke, drink, and nap.
Until Morning: Heal 1 + 1 for each - entertainment, food, sleep.
Heal twice as much in comfort with good beds, company, food, and drink.
If reduced to below 0 or below HP by non-lethal means roll a Drop Check: d20 + Grit - any negative HP. 10 or less drop unconscious until you gain 1 hp. 11 or higher remain at your current HP. If you are reduced by lethal means, you make the same roll and it is considered a death check. Compare the die results to the table and the high the better it will be.
Some other mechanic things to be considered or needs further explanation:
Aces are a meta currency that each player start the session with one and they can spent on a re-roll. When a player rolls a natural 20, they can choose between gaining an Ace or a new skill. Though be warned, if any player rolls a natural 1, everyone loses their aces.
Skills as explained before (and if the GM agrees) allows the player to make an ability roll with advantage. Characters can only have a maximum of six skills and if the player wants a new skill, they have to forget an old one.
Advantage and Disadvantage is used. Advantage = rolling 2d20 and taking the higher result while Disadvantage = rolling 2d20 and taking the lower result.
Tough Shots are the way to adjust the target number by GM fiat or to take into consideration range, weather, if the target is small/moving/behind cover/etc., is the shooter distracted/moving/blind firing, and the gun - rifles are good at long range/shotguns are good at hitting moving targets/close range. The more unlikely the shot, the greater the DR of the Slick check to hit and the lower the DR of the Luck check to avoid being hit.
Conditions fall into two categories. Miserable and Drunk. Miserable results from a character not meeting basic needs/being poisoned/Frostbit/Exhausted/Soggy Boots and so on. If a character is deprived they cannot heal HP until the condition is resulted. Drunk results from intoxication and the first time a character becomes drunk they swap to abilities and must make a note of which abilities were swapped as the same abilities will be swapped each time the character becomes drunk.
A small list of drugs, medical kits, and so on + what effect they have.
The Hat! Players can sacrifice their hat to avoid being hit as their hat is shot off instead.
Final Thoughts: I have to say that Frontier Scum is dripping with flavor flavor from the layout, the character creation choices, the baked in setting, baked in locations, and some really great tidbits like determining the horse personality/looks/etc. One of my favorite things in the game is the ye old cowboy hat and how you can sacrifice the hat to avoid being hit.
I think the setting it comes with along with the adventure in the back really go a long way to help the players and the GM understand the vibe of that game plus, the characters are wanted men and women. You are Scum and Scoundrels in a frontier that never was.
If I am being honest, this game was my first exposure to the theme of "Acid Western". I had to do some research on the genre. I still need to watch some of the recommended source material but at the moment I do not have a firm grasp on the genre except for the foundation of things are bad and will rarely get better. People are just trying to survive day by day and will generally mind their own business unless they are up to nefarious plots.
The game also has information and proves for equipment, services, hunting/fishing/foraging, city life, NPCs, and a great starting adventure. There is an overshadowing of the weird/grotesque so a GM could lean into those aspects for a more supernatural feel or stay away from them for more of a focus on the darkness of humanity and the harshness of frontier life. Or just anywhere in between.
Frontier Scum originally started out as a Mork Borg hack but grew into its own thing before release. Though you can still see Mork Borg's influence. There is also some influences from Death in Space.
Now there are some caveats I would like to mention:
There is a lack of explanation on the genre
There is a lack of guidance on how the wanted PC's interact with towns and other people. This includes what actions will cause the PC's to be reported to the authorities and how well known the PCs are.
Low HP/Low possible stats can make the game lethal and the players will not have a chance to take advantage of the healing/rest rules.Though, with that being said, if the players are smart there character can end up being tougher then you think.
Progression is not linear, characters can increase HP and abilities from death checks. This also includes gaining new skills (to a max of 6) and getting new gear and silver.
The crime and wanted dead/alive/dead or alive determination tables can get a bit wonky as a character can end up being wanted dead or dead or alive for more minor crimes.
