"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 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.
A "failed career" that has some impact because lets face it, no one is born an adventurer
Smooth Combat
I think the FIRST thing is going to be create an example list of failed careers after the players choose their "job" and add the caveat of them writing down why the career failed and what was their call to adventure. Like one of the three jobs, they are considered to have the equipment from their failed career. I also think this enriches characters backstories and opens up role play options. Players can roll, choose, or work with the Storyteller of choosing something else. There may be some other examples as well.
Alchemist
Astrologer
Barber
Blacksmith
Butcher
Cutpurse
Farmer
Gambler
Healer
Hunter
Mariner
Mercenary
Merchant
Musician
Rat Catcher
Scribe
Smuggler
Soldier
Trapper
Vagrant
The SECOND thing is going to reduce math as much as possible. In my initial "secret rule book" I used a three tier difficulty to make choosing target numbers quick and characters got to add +5 to their roll if the action fell under the purview of their job. This is also the area where I want the "failed careers" to have an impact outside of lore and I want to keep the three tier difficulty base...so here we go...
If an action falls within the Job: 8+
In an action falls within the failed career: 10+
Everything else: 15+
The THIRD thing was to make combat player facing and it is something I spent a lot of time play-testing and I was truly on the fence about it. In the end, I decided to not handle combat this way. I wanted the experience to be more dynamic and engaging for everyone evolved. Plus, I think it would be fun to add a little bit of swing and chaos. For posterity sake I am going to include my original idea below.
If the characters tactics falls within the scope of their job OR the opponent/hazard is not meant to be strong: 8+
If it is standard opponent/hazard: 12+
All other opponents/hazards: 15+
Now, how I ended up to decide how to run it will be that there will be simple initiative (adventurers go first) and then the opponents. Everyone gets a turn and only the active adventurer or opponent as the ability to deal a hit (more on the below). Then the player and the Storyteller will both roll d20s and whoever has the highest result wins and the active adventurer or opponent will get to land a hit. Though, the caveat of this is that if the adventurer's job can be brought to bear then the players gets to add +5 to their roll!
Oh yes, I did it. I changed it up for combat. So sue me.
The FOURTH thing I was going to do was to hard wire in some resource management in the core so to speak but after much play-testing and introspection I decided against it. I am going to use a simple hit system like it has been done since the dawn of time. Adventurers start with 7 hits. Most opponents will have 1-2 hits and more powerful opponents will have more. Simple as that.
So, putting this all together, it would look like this...
Sirabolter is a massive Dwarven city built into the side of a mountain that houses about 500,000 residents.
Harl and Vladimir arrive in the city of Sirabolter on a cart that they were able to hitch a ride to Sirabolter because Gareth was contacted Harl telepathically and after the shock wore off a quick conversation was had and Gareth shared where the rest of the party was headed and the general plan.
Regardless, Harl and Vladimir spend some time wandering the city absolutely lost to find the rest of their party until Gareth reached out again Telepathically to give Harl directions and the party is eventually reunited. Gareth shares various rumors and lore about the city of Sirabolter. The most interesting information that was shared was how there are rumors of a Drow incursion in the lower mines. After the conversation, the party decided to enjoy some rest and all members go their own ways for awhile.
After food, baths, and worship the party find themselves at the edge of a fighting ring from the encouragement of Enama. Enama ends up entering the ring facing off against an obscenely muscled dwarf. The match was a blur of action as both combatants ended up covered in sand and blood. The rest of the party held their breath as it looked like Enama was going to be beaten but Enama finds an opening and is able to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat.
After Enama gets cleaned up, the party decides to head to the Battle Cavern to find out more about the incursion in the mines. As they enter the the Battle Cavern, they are stopped by some guards as Harl Hands over the job posting. The guards quickly notice Anari and share some harsh words and some harsher questioning due to Anari's heritage. As Harl eases the guards minds about Anari and the guards lead them to the foreman of the mines. The foreman explained how they used to be a civilization of dwarves below known as the Alabaster Dwarves and how the kept the forces of the underdark at bay. The Battle Cavern of Unquenched Valor is a monument to the Alabaster Dwarves costly victory. The foreman continues to explain that the incursions started about year ago and the guards were able to find the tunnels the Drow were using as access and those tunnels have been collapsed but they must have found a different way in and even with the guards patrolling parts of the mine, the breaches have not been found.
With all of this new information, the party decides to explore the mine in the morning and everyone takes advantage of one of the famous bath houses known as the Bubbling Cauldron. Harl, with his best Flynn Rider smile is able to sweet talk the dwarf running the front desk (who happened to the owner) to run Harl's bath and give Harl a massage herself. Prince Claren mumbled that they can't take Harl anywhere as the odd couple vanish into the bathhouse. Gareth and Prince Claren opt for the public pools as and swap war stores with other patrons of the bath house. There is an older dwarf couple that appears to recognize Claren as a Prince and their low conversation becomes excited.
In the aftermath of the adventures at the Bubbling Cauldron, the party find themselves at a busy tarven enjoying some drink and food. After Vladimir has to much to drink, Vladimir decides to pick a fight with a grumpy looking dwarf by making fun of the dwarf's beard. This quickly escalates into an all out brawl. The dwarf quickly establishing dominance and the brawl becomes one sided in the favor of the dwarf. In a panic, Vladimir draws a dagger and in response one of the dwarves friends throws the dwarf an axe. In the bloodshed, Vladimir is brought to his knees and before the final blow could land, Prince Claren steps between them moments before the Snow Flurries (The city guards) show up to break up a fight and try to figure out what happened. Gareth quickly offers to buy everyone a drink at the tavern as the dwarf exclaims to the law that there is no need for their interference - it has been settled. The Snow Flurries gives the party the riot act about starting trouble and next time there will not be a choice about the law getting involved. Gareth and Harl give Vladimir a stern talking to about the etiquette of a bar fight and how drawing a weapon should never be an option - it is called murder.
The party regroups at the inn and they discuss what their next course of action will be. They decide that they need money to finance the supplies they will need to take a deep dive into the mines. The party decided to follow the lead about the treasure that is supposedly hidden in Giant Mountain. The party decided to take the safer path back through the town of Arduin to resupply heading up the mountain.
_______
PLAYER NOTES:This was a great session full of some superb role play. It was great to see all of the characters explore the city and indulge in their own likes and to see what characters preferred downtime actions are. The DM did some great lore drop about the city and there was even some conversion about settling down in the city after the Prince is delivered. I was shocked about the decisions made by Vladimir's character regardless of the bar fight and my characters sense of justice was going to let the whole situation play out.
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