SoA: Development Log 2

 

Writing has continued consistently since my initial Secrets of Arn and the first development log. I believe I have the character creation prompts locked down and I moved my focus to the Referee's "Secret Rule book." The secret rule book is basically how I would run games, what resolution processes to use, and what procedures to use to help keep the game going and to try to prevent the game from grinding to a halt. 

Even getting to this point was interesting because I went back and forth on how much should I include, how should I include it, or if I should just give some deep guidelines in running the game. I decided to use my secret rule book in its entirety so Referees have something to work with to make running the game easier. These Referee's can use it, change it, throw it out and write their own secret rule book, and do their own research. It is simply the tools I use but it is not law and might not even be the best way to handle things. It is simply what I do - nothing more and nothing less.

The heart of the decision and what all other decisions are going to be based off of is the dice, how they are used, and how they are interpreted. Though, due to the whole point of this project is to capture a certain style of play and to preserve history I need to take into account other aspects before making design decisions. Which, actually makes it easier in a way because a lot of how I would do things tends to align with history and the choice was simple. Use d6s!!!

The choice was made but the how presented difficulty and I ended up second guessing myself, third guessing myself, and spent some time wanting to chew my own neck off. After writing pros and cons list, having conversions with various people in the industry, I decided what was going to make the final decisions on how the dice work is going to come down to probabilities. 

Below is the classic 2d6 probability curve that let me explore options with different target numbers and opposed rolls. 

After some additional study, I ran the numbers with a 2d6/3d6 advantage mechanic. 

Now it is just a matter of deciding on the probabilities and I have to keep in mind that regardless how I set up it is going to work for the players the same as the referee. Looking at probabilities has helped me make some final decisions moving forward.

 Consistency and fairness is key because there is over 40 years of consistency!

I am going to end this with additional art by the talented Inked Gas...

 

Some Thoughts about D&D 5e

 

Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition was released on July 15th, 2014 and has since released countless supplements and books that changed how various systems or procedures work and ret-coned various aspects. Fifth Edition came off the heels of 4th edition that was met with mixed opinions (regardless of what side you were on, 4th Edition was a completely different game then its predecessors) and the success of Pathfinder. 

I was ecstatic when 5th Edition was released and I felt like it really streamed that what the game was in the 3.x era. It made things across the board easier and was a better polished game compared to most of the editions. 

 

Now, the years have gone by and the varnish has worn off. Now before I go into my issues with D&D 5e, I want to discuss the things it has done well.

• Bounded Accuracy (Proficiency Bonus)
• Magic Users (Cantrips and such have made spell casters viable across the board)
• Streamlined Mechanics 
• Accessibility 
• Good Dungeon Master's Guide
  

I do not know if this has anything to do with the actual game of 5e or marketing but Dungeons and Dragons as well as other role playing games have became popular and mainstream in a sense. This can be seen in its accessibility, the Critical Role effect, how various Hollywood stars have publicly talked about or played Dungeons and Dragons as well as other games. Regardless of why, I think this has been a positive situation with the hobby for countless reasons and gives me hope people who role play will not have to deal with another Satanic Panic.

Now, with that being said, it is time to discuss the issues with it. I have not played 5e in over a year and really did not do anything in the table top realm. Now, I have been playing in a 5e campaign and just catching up in general including a deep dive back into the 5e books and my experiences. These are not going to be in any particular order...

1. The rules are not as streamlined as I initially thought. It is true that 5e has came a long way since its 3.x days but it is not enough. 5e has required countless Q&A "Sage Advice" for answers how rules are suppose to work. Even with this, there is still debate among players but at least there is a Compendium for the most common issues which acts as a living errata document. Though, language as not been updated in subsequent printings. Now, errata being what it may and there is some expected instances of "editing missed that" this is ridiculous. Things should not be so poorly written or convoluted that they need consistent sage advice or a living errata document. In addition to even after sage advice, it still causes contention between players. 
2. After what? 45+ years there is still a consistent struggle of created a viable Barbarian, Monk, Ranger, and to a lesser extent Rogue class? It took Pathfinder a years and a whole supplement Unchained to hammer out common issues and attempts in Unearthed Arcana were made to revisit the Ranger but the minor changes helped the class but it still was not enough and other classes have not been revisited at or or barely touched upon. In addition to spell casters get the most support out of all of the other classes across the board. The frosting on this cake is Unearthed Arcana is unofficial or play test material so Dungeon Masters across the board do not have to allow it.
3. Just because 5e is popular, does not make it a good intro RPG for new players or DMs and #1 supports this greatly. 
4. Feats have obscenely different power levels and usability. 
5. One of the Sacred Cows that WOTC seems to be holding on to is Challenge Ratings. This creates a lot of complicated math for trying to build encounters even with the formulas given. There is also the additional issue where Challenge Ratings do not always match the creature they are attached to and there is even fractions! This places a ton of extra work on the DM for no reason at all. D&D needs to bring back using HD and special abilities for encounters and get rid of all the extra math and matching issues with CR. 
6. Another Sacred Cow is Vatican Magic, there are better more intuitive ways to handle magic.
   
7. Since 3.x tactical combat and combat in general is a consistent focus which makes using fists to solve every problem a common tactic which is systematically supported. 
8. Yet another Sacred Cow is the 9 point alignment system.
9. Adventure Paths have been consistently poorly written and require a lot of work from the DM. They should work right out of the box with minimal effort by the DM - that is the whole point of adventure paths. 
10. There are huge differences in what classes have better use of the action economy (standard, reaction, and bonus actions) and a lot of times, actions are unused. This also relates to #2.
11. Skill resolution is tired to the same system as combat and both of them are meant for different types of outcome ranges. The attempt at a unified mechanic falls short here with skill points. 

I think that is everything off of the top of my head for now.

Ok, I lied. there is one more point I already mentioned but I want to reiterate is that 5e is not a good game for beginners as people do not want to sit through hours of rules or how to play discussions. This is also includes spending entire sessions on character creation and reviews. I think people who are interested in playing Dungeons and Dragons or any role playing game for the matter do not want to sit through rule and how to slogs and just want to get into the game, the character, and start playing. Even me (being a veteran player) tends to role their eyes when people start discussing rules or the entire game is put on pause when the DM or another player has to bust out the rule book. These points right here is where I think we lose a lot of new people and frustrate a lot of veteran players. I believe we should strive to get people in the game as quickly as possible, keeping immersion deep as best we can, and then keeping the game moving without rule breaks. 

Once again, I have ended up with more to say when I thought I was down. I guess that is why I rarely post things as soon as I am finished so I can let them simmer for a day or two but I digress...

To begin, Wizards of the Coast has released their publishing schedule for 2024. The biggest title on the list is the new Players Handbook... From there it looks like there is going to be 48 sub classes? And a return to rules bloat! WOTC's habit of turning RPGs into a commercial product for mass consumption have driven the game as a concept and an art into a money grab that leaves little room for quality control. It has been a long slide since at the release of 4th Edition into fully devolving the game into a cRPG/MMO model. A game played on a character sheet with players looking to hit character sheet “buttons” to solve problems and waiting for the next seratonin hit from the next level, magic item, spell, or whatever else they earn. Creative problem solving, exploration of procedurally generated places, rolep laying, and encounters has waned. It seems that WOTC continues to hammer nails in the coffin of the idea of neither the DM nor the Players knowing which way a session will end.

With that being said and what I have seen of all of the current and past play test materials the New Players Handbook is going to bring a lot of positive mechanical changes to the process of character creation, races, classes, feats, and so on. Though a lot of these changes have already been seen in Pathfinder 2e and other places. I also believe the book is even going to be re-organized to make it more intuitive and user friendly. Even with all of this, The Monk, .Barbarian, and Ranger still need work.

This is in addition to I have yet to see any reworks of important subsystems like Challenge Ratings, role play focused abilities, backgrounds, and so on. Though, I am sure we are going to see a revised Monster Handbook and Dungeon Masters Handbook at some point. Regardless of all of this, it is rounding back to my original point. 5th Edition did not go far enough and neither is D&D One going far enough to file off the burs and really adjust things that need to be fixed. I have zero faith that the new players handbook is not going to need official sage advice to clarify things and adventures will be good to go out of the box...

FKR Simply Defined

 

In my initial "Definitions of FKR" post there is a lot of flowery language and great explanations of ideas which I think it is great. Though, re-reading it and after more experience it all sounds way to theoretical and may be confusing. I am going to list various aspects but they are not in any particular order.

The first thing is that playing games FKR style or FKR games are designed to be high trust or played with an high trust mindset. This roughly translates that the players trust the Referee to be fair, knowledgeable, and that the Referee is going to make clear consistent rulings. To condense this further, the Referee has a lot of authority to make unilateral decisions without necessarily failing back on any published rules. 

The second thing is that the Referee tracks a good amount of the player focus stuff. This could be magic points, hits, gear uses, and so on. By doing this, the referee creates an environment where the players spend more time immersed in the fiction.  

The third thing is that generally, the style is played with little rules. No 600 page rule books to be found as far as the eye can see. 

The forth and final thing tends to cause a lot of discussion and is something that causes a lot of confusion. FKR style games tend to be rules light and the players do not have access to whatever rules or ruling they are out going to experience during the course of play with the minor exception of what is needed for character creation (and to make meaningful decisions during that process). So, with that being said, it is possible to run Pathfinder, 5e, or even GURPS in an FKR style but I do not know why a Referee would want to do that to themselves. 

Here is where the confusion comes in. People will argue that Dave Arneson (and others) did not have rules when he ran his games but that is not the case. It is well documented that Arneson handed over 18 pages of rules to Gary Gygax that would be used to help design the original release of Dungeons & Dragons. Though, whatever rules or rulings Arneson used, he kept to himself and there was no players handbook that the players had access to. Hence, this is where the high trust aspect comes into play and the ye olde reference to the invisible rulebook.

Another point of contention that this forth aspect causes is that there is a lot of rules discussions regarding this style of game or play and it tends to frustrate the veterans and other people who have a lot of experience with this style of gaming. This has caused some of the veterans to step away from those conversations and those spaces. 

This situation just comes from a lack of understanding of the play style and a lack of comfort from people who have little or no experience of the play style because they want guidelines or sets of rulings to help them on their journey. That is where the barrage of rules questions come from. It also does not help that a lot of FKR products do not offer much in referee guidance outside of resolution mechanic and some character creation. There is no problem with people seeking rulings that they can use for their games or to use until they are comfortable to create their own. 

Circling back to the high trust aspect of FKR and the higher responsibility of the Referee I am going to try to smooth out the misunderstandings, wrinkles, and try to assist new Referees wanting to run games in this style. 

So, as a Referee for this style of game, you are in charge of creating a high trust environment, conducting research, and separating the players from the rules so they can be as immersed as possible in the experience. So, the referee should come to the table prepared with some baseline rulings, campaign information, and their handy dandy notebook. Depending on the comfort level of the referee will determine how much rulings they bring ready to go in their notebook and how much on the fly rulings they will make during the course of play. That is why it is important to have the notebook and to MAKE SURE TO WRITE IT DOWN so the Referee can make the exact same ruling or call the next time and the time after that. Consistency is key - hence the high trust aspect.

For an example, in a game that Arneson was running someone decided to throw a fireball and the response was what? The answer to the what was well, I am a wizard and that is what wizards do. So, on the spot the ruling for a fireball was decided and was written down in the notebook. 

As for research? Yes, it is important as the referee to take time to research things the characters in the game talk about, are interested in, or discuss. I am reminded of a story where Gary Gygax was running a game and there was a 16 year old high school kid at his table. During the session, the 16 year old announces that he hits the opponent with ??? (I do not know what the word is - but it was some fancy word for some fancy polearm) and Gygax had no idea what that was, but he did not let the 16 year old kid know that. So Gygax gave it a damage rating, wrote it down in the notebook, and then the next day Gygax went down to the library and read through a historical book on medieval weaponry. This is probably one of the reasons why there is a listing for every can opener on a stick in some of the books. Regardless, the point still stands. Referee's need to do their research and use their notebook to make sure their rulings and how they handle situations stay consistent.

That is the style of and how to run it on the referee side. The players responsibility in this is to trust the Referee and let go of all modern gaming sensibilities.

Legacies of Exera: Sessions 11 & 12

 

 Session 11

The party awakens in the inn in Arduine only to discover that Sir Harl and Stephonocles have left.  Harl saw the apparition of his fiancee again and chased it, leaving a note for the party saying he would return as soon as possible and if Harl and Stephoncles misses them, they will catch up in Sirabutler. Stephonocles followed Harl.  

The party began investigating the town to locate the werewolves.  The party discovered that one of the werewolves was the shop keep at the general store.  There was one more, who they discovered lives in a cave outside of town.  They battled them both as the shop keep called its alpha when he was attacked.  They learned that there had previously been a third but it died earlier.  The party then continued their journey, encountering a hill giant in one encounter and three ogres in another.  They came to a crossroad where the road continued on to the Dwarven city of Sirabulter and a path went left up Giant Mountain. They decided to take the road to Sirabulter to get some rest and restock on supplies before continuing to Giant Mountain.

Session 12

Before arriving at Sirabulter, Vladimir departed from the party to go find Harl and Stephonocles to let them know they had gone to Sirabulter.  The party then arrived at the mountain pass into Sirabulter.  After paying the entry fee of 1 copper piece each, they entered Sirabulter through Sharindlar's Acres, Sirabulter's northern agricultural district.  Here they purchased a wagon from human Hans Arstel at Arrowstar Wainwright.  Afterwards they purchased four draft horses (two brown, one black, and one white with black spots) from dwarf Magtharn Hammerfall at Hammerfall Stables.  They then traveled to Bubbling Cauldron in the Gloryview district of Sirabulter and got baths, laundered their clothes, and got massages.  They learned from some Dwarves in the bath that there was some kind of threat from the "Roots of the Mountain" in the Grand Mines of Sirabulter (located in the the Cloudy Peaks district).  They learned Underdark spiders, Duergar, and even Drow had been spotted in the mines near ancient tunnels that had previously led to a now abandoned ancient Dwarven city in the roots of the mountain.  The party then purchased rooms and meals at Ye Olde Ponies Inn in the Gloryview neighborhood.  They then sold weapons they had looted at the Fabulous Blade and sold looted armor at The Wandering Mountain, both shops in the Bonderbreaks.  They also sold gems and art at the Lonely Pantheon in the Gloryview district.  

 

__________

PLAYER NOTES: Due to series of unfortunate events I was not able to be present for Sessions 11 & 12, I received the summary reports from the Dungeon Master. 

Garvangr (Harl's Spear) - Gained +1 enhancement bonus

Goujian (Prince Claren's Sword) - +1 enhancement bonus.

Bag of Three (Gareth's Belt) - Bag of Holding Qualities 

Shadowgrumble (A'nari's Crossbow) - Enhanced Critical Hit: On a critical, this eapon deals an additional 2d6 piercing damage.  

Pia's Belt (Enama's Belt) - +1 to saving throws & DC's to Ki abilities. In addition, a bonus action can be utilized to regain Ki points equal to the roll of the Martial Arts die, this feature cannot be used again until the next dawn. 

Feyshadow Boots (Helenista's Boots) - The footsteps of the wearer make no sound and the wearer gains advantage on Stealth Checks that rely on moving silently.

SoA: Development Log 1

 

One of the the first things I wanted to tackle with this project is decide how to handle character creation. From my research and conversations I have had character creation processes tended to be more free form that what is commonly seen today. This fact still held true even with the release of the Original Dungeons and Dragons. 

So, now I am left with two options. The first option is to go full free form character creation that includes the players answering questions and making some choices such as equipment and vocations. The second option is to still include the free from prompts but also add in some type of basic attribute stats to give the players and the Referee a numerical option to work off of. 

There was a long period of time where I was playing around with the second option but then I had a conversion with James Spahn and he brought up a point that made me stop in my tracks. Long story short is that the point of the conversation when looking at game design, take into account what is just habit. What ideas or sensibilities are you falling back on? That conversation reversed my thinking and I decided to focus on the first option. 

With the decision out of the way, now it is time to get to work on setting up the questions. The questions need to be personal, be descriptive enough (without becoming a tedious process) to bring a character to life, allow the player to see potential in the character's growth, name, choices for equipment/vocation, and bonds outside of the player characters. These choices need to make the player feel like the character is connected to the world. This connection will allow greater immersion. 

The most difficult part with the character creation is I need to make sure that the questions and number of the questions provide enough detail that new players are able visualize their characters and give them something solid to interact with the world without the process becoming a slog. As I have stated previously, I want Secrets of Arn to be easy to grasp for people who have never played this style of gaming before or even new gamers in general. 

My first couple rough drafts ping ponged back abs forth between 5-6 questions to 12-15 questions. During these drafts, I also went back and forth between allowing the players to choose a special ability for their characters or magic or both. In Bob Meyer's games he allows players to select special abilities for the purpose of uniqueness and to help keep magic out of the game because it does not matter what game, what idea, what system, magic tends to be a headache. 

After screaming endlessly into void, I decided the special ability character creation prompt is going to allow both options. So, a player can decide if they want their character to have a special ability or they want their character to be magically inclined. Special abilities are designed specifically for the character with the player and the Referee working together and can range from being exceptionally skilled at a certain task or aspect, turning the characters arms into tentacles, or even something that may be considered more magical or obscure in nature.

This decision is going to lead to more work down the road as I will have to figure out how magic is going to work and how I am going to limit it.

Though, figuring out magic is a future me problem. For now, I have finalized 8 prompts for the character creation process and I am happy how they turned out. At this point, I feel like the character creation process is done and the page could be handed out to get things rolling with little effort.