Hell-o

 Hi all , writing this from in hospital, waiting 3 weeks for a triple bypass. I kid you not. Anyway just wanted to get this down.  Before my stay here in Waikato Hospital I had been playing with a new system to use instead of just hit points.  Firstly a character rolls as usual for hit points up to third level as normal, then no more hit points beyond this. They also record their constitution as life points and then their level as death points. So this is how it works. Normal damage for hit points - this is just that sum of luck combat prowess etc that normally represents damage in combat or due to other environmental factors.  Life points is next - for small weapons 1 point per hit, medium weapons or like damage is 2 points and 2 handed weapons or type/size damage is 3 points.  If you are hit by something bigger DM/GM/Referee to adjudicate.  When someone takes damage in life points they divide their full life points by remaining life points (round down) to get there penalty to hit, save or movement - eg 10 out of 14 the character has a -1 to hit and saves and -5 feet move, at 2 out of 14 the same character has -7 to hit and saves and -35 feet to move ( 5 feet x modifier). Once all life points have been depleted then on next successful hit character loses first death point - from then on -1 death point per round- player is dying - save vs Con to stay awake on a d 20 or 4d6 - which ever system feels right for your group.  This opens the game to some interesting options, weapons, spells , poisons that deal damage to different pools - does Life damage instead of hit points or the serious stuff does direct death damage etc. Have yet to try this out with my group due to heart attack.

The next part is working on how to modify the monsters etc to fit in this. So far I am using this: Any creature that does not have a personal name has just hit points, anything that is named has the full set of pools. I am still working on adjusting the monsters hit point totals to align with the players new pool.  Thinking of, depending on size , having a limit on number rolled on hit dice orcs have 1 d8.  These orcs would keep this, a dragon may have 8d8, roll the first 3 h.d. as normal and the rest has a  top of 6 on each die rolled after. Still playing with this and hope to get back to it either while I wait for the surgery or get back to the gaming table. 

The reason I started down this was to speed up combat, do my own version of the old E6 in 3.5 D&D while giving the player  and DM some more options in play. Also Magic users are a lot more liveable as are the other low numbered hp type characters , just thought the more martial types get 1 hp per level over 3rd, or 1h.p. and there con bonus hmmmmmm. Cheers all and Game On! 

Just a thought...

Hi de hi, long time I know but... 

during a game of about 2 or so months ago ( before the dreaded Covid bug hit me), I was trying out a new manner in which to resource Arcane spell casters.  At first level an arcane spell caster gets 1 d10.  When they want to cast they throw the dice and have to get equal to or over a target number to be successful in casting.  The equation to get to the target number was - Level of spell being cast, number of spells already cast within their '24 hour' day and the number of resets.  A reset is where they are unsuccessful and can not cast until they have spent 15 minutes per level of spell they wish to use for that 24 hour period in going over their spell books etc- so they need a safe and relatively quite place to do so. So in this example case if a caster had cast 3 spells and this was their first reset ( after their first unsuccessful casting ) and the spell level was 2 that target number would be 3 (number of spells already cast that day)+1(for the each reset) + 2 (spell level) =6. If they roll that or better they can cast the spell. Each 2 levels after first, ie 3rd, 5th etc. the caster gains another d10.  This helped the caster be a little more versatile while also putting in limits so they don't go overboard. And yes if the target number is above the max they can throw on the number of die that casting is impossible until they cycle into their next 'day'. The players appeared to think it a fair and useful mechanic  which supported the group more without creating mega-monsters. Try it and get back to me about your experience.

Game on!

Steve

Early November

 So all bar one player has reached 7th level. They have sorted out a conflict between a village and some beast men, dealt with a dragon, entered , destroyed and survived the Tempe of Chaos (in the mid of winter) , rescued a high level druidess gone insane and now are heading into some conflict action between nations - yep WAR!.  And from what I can tell they have all enjoyed the experience. The life or death situations keenly felt and the intensity of each session just builds on the previous session - takes me back to my early to md years of role playing there seems a real investment of what's going on and the place and people seem to matter to the PC's and Player - awesome stuff.  What we added to the game early on was a character tree ala Dark Sun, that way should a character fall they player has a new character ready to roll, albeit a little less powerful.  So hoping to hit tenth level before we break up for Christmas and then on into the New Year with another campaign that I about to assemble a poll on to see what they are looking for in the next story. Cheers all and Game On!

BOO!!

 

Yeah, time, reasons et al. Anyway the Wednesday Face to Face group is trying out 1st ed Advanced D&D.  The change to the rule is that every session up to 7th they advance 1 level, then 1 level every 2 sessions until 10th when the game closes, unless they want to continue in some manner. No XP count.  They are playing in a what if world. What if the Ice Age existed in 407 AD and Doggerland still was dry.  Anyway last session was sweet. The hit point powerhouse Ranger almost got totalled by a Brown Bear. The look on their faces , the hoot of success and survival from the players took me back to something I haven't seen in many decades of playing.  Something about the early editions that just brings that spark alive.  So cool. Anyway off to see what devilry I can concoct for them next week, Game On!

Holy shoot!

Hi out there, very long time no post..things and life seem to get away.  So been busy trying out new systems either on line or in the new face to face group that's been going since September last year. At present landed on two osr type games - B/X Advanced and White Box FMAG as well as Tiny Supers.  Moving to Vigilante City in a few weeks ( weird as its based loosely on AD&D) and starting up another Traveller game after finishing a season in the Agweedo Subsector, a home-brewed setting mixing Classic Traveller and Cepheus Engine ( sort of a clone of Classic Traveller but updated a bit. So once this next cycle begins I hope to bring some variations on play and rules using these as examples. Otherwise Game On!

More musings

So thinking more on alternate rulings for D&D, revert back to Holmes style  all weapons do a d6 damage, except those that are used hand and a half or two handed - the big weapons not as in the change in combat in 3rd edition with using two hands to wield a weapon ( removing shield usage) then the damage is 2d6.
In combat if we use the to hit roll as a to penetrate roll and instead of using dexterity  bonus / penalty to lower / raise Armour class ( depending on descending or ascending AC)  now it is used as an ability to negate that may points of damage ( the bonus from high dexterity ) from the damage roll as the target 'rolls with the blow' or tries to use their dexterity to minimise damage. Of course as always if you are hit there would be a minimum of 1 point per attack that penetrates the armour.   I don't think I would use this with the previous idea on hit points as this smells to much like power creep , producing super heroes level characters at low levels that I associate 3 and 3.5 editions with.

So next classes or as I would rename Professions. Each profession has abilities and knowledge s particular to that endeavor.  There are some baseline abilities and knowledge that are global - e.g.everyone can swing a weapon, but fighters , perhaps, either can place it well to hit more often or gain more attacks. Following are some examples of that which are global, and that which belongs to a particular Profession;

Global; Sneak, track, use a weapon, build a fire, climb, swim, ride a horse, row a boat, fish, forage/hunt, cook, knowledge on geography, languages, history, culture, engineering, building, crafting, etiquette, math, literacy, disguise




Fighter: use tactics or strategy in a fight, combat endurance, use almost anything as a weapon, size up the enemy, place an effective blow, have greater number of attacks, blind fighting, maintenance of weapons and armour

Ranger: identify animal types, identify plant types, particular  terrain survival,  animal husbandry, naturopathy, more effective hunting or foraging, identify tracks, more effective tracking, camouflage, weapon/armour maintenance

Thief: moving extra quietly, palm objects, pick pockets, bilk another, evaluate items, discern traps, discern security, more effective sneaking, quick attacks, weapon maintenance

Magic user/ Illusionist: use arcane spells, brew potions, magic magical items, knowledge on arcane subjects/items, literacy

Clerics: use divine magic, follow religious tenets, can benefits or bonuses to overcome opposing religion(s) from either /and their gods and religious order, create divine powered magic items, perform rituals, knowledge on religions, knowledge/belief on what comes after death, literacy

If including Paladins: a mix of Cleric and Fighter

If including Assassin: similar to a thief adding poison use and effective disguise

I have chosen not to include Monk as from the 1st edition  as they , for me at least, tend to be of a more oriental feel and my focus is on the more 'medieval' feeling of D&D.

Races: the would have specific physical and  cultural traits on top of the above listed, if they were from a race that was heavily involved in magic  or favored by a particular god they may have specialised abilities gifted to them through those vectors.
So I know it sounds like I have roughly summed up whats already in existance but my next step will be to quantify these more precisely and see what that looks like.. see you whenever Ive got round to that. Until then .. GAME ON!

Consistency

Glad to see I am keeping up with being consistent - consistent in not posting anything. Well lets change that.  Had a discussion with one of the players in the Traveller game about he is adapting his 0 ed D&D game. This led me to incorporate some of that and do some more tweaking of my own.  So here goes;
instead of gaining hit points each level a character starts with their CON plus one die per level. The Hit die per level can be magically healed , fast healed etc whatever takes your fancy. The Con hit points , when damaged can only be healed by rest (and possibly Naturopathy vectors).  Also the Hit die per level ( referred to now as Hero points) can be used to soak up damage, used to soak up points to gain a successful saving throw or skill roll - so the player now can use what was once thought of as a combat resource pool- and have a little more versatility in using this resource.
Monsters:
Any individual Npc would be treated as above, in any given 'hoard' roughly 80% would be treated as 1 hit point wonders and the rest given their hit die.  This was to emulate the hack and slash, mowing down of opponents, but still presenting the characters with challenge - now those 100+ group encounters from 1st ed Monster Manual will make more sense.  Have to try this out and see if it works - cheers for now and GAME ON!

One Shot

Howdy everyone, another longgggggggggggggggg spell between posts. Anyways here's a little something we tried out  superheroing under a Travelleresque rule set...

To hit or to miss...

Hi all just a thought I had today.  As most people are aware , in many systems the armour class system is to allow more heavily armoured individuals to not be as damaged as others.  The common term was 'to hit'.  What if we change that up to 'to penetrate'.  Now all the arguements about the systems where heavier armour doesnt make you harder to hit, but harder to be penetrated and thereby damaged not such an issue... thoughts?

 Steve

Been a while (again)...

Hi there, just started a Classic Traveller game based on the 1977 LBB's. Trying to follow these rules as closely as possible. Only house ruling I have had so far is for the future in gaining new skills - where it says 4 years substitute 1 year.  Also changing the title of Scout to Traveller/Wanderer and swapping out Scout ship for contacts/debts on the mustering out table.  The players seem to be enjoying the game way out past human centric civilization and having to deal with the 'alien' one.

SO.....

And so it looks like the KAAtooM game is suffering from lack of players, time of the year/ different commitments et al... never mind.  This got me thinking and reading ... Oh oh I hear my players! lol.  So anyway I was reading a post on Google + - yes it can be helpful- about the reading list of D&D, the Appendix N and how the blogger was considering the stories lying therein were about ready formed people, not ones who trudched through various 'level' and had mostly formed character traits etc etc etc.  This sounds a lot like another game I enjoy, namely Traveller.  With this in mind I bent my ear to trying and fleshing out a system, using 1st ed as its base that reflected a more 'fully formed' character to start with, without it being some ridiculous high level , munckin, monty hall cast member. Along the way as changes happened some other interesting things came to light, which I'll get to at that time

So we start the game with what ever generation system you favour ( this will have an impact as will be obvious soon) we favoured 4d6 remove one dice.  Then place your stats where you want in order: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.  So far nothing unusual here. Choose race ( most of the stories represented a human centric world but if the Dm is cool go for whatever races you want) and class - any class for the 1st Ed players book appears doable in this system we dont use thief as anyone can use these skills if they purchase them. Again nothing out of the ordinary here except for the theif situation.

Next we start with the change.  The first 3 stats become the characters hit points, with an 'HP' pool of what adjustment the Constitution would give from the table in the players book. Next, if playing an arcane or divine magic using class figure your spell pool - these are used as the power behind you casting spells.  Each  point equates to powering a spell of that level e.g 1 pt  = 1st level, 3 pts = 3rd level and so on. So it is Charisma + 1/2 (round down) Wisdom for divine and Constitution + 1/2 (round down) Intelligence for arcane. Next total the characters intelligence + 1/2 (round down) Wisdom score for the Skill / ability pool to buy these. Also a caster can choose to purchase extra spells on a point for level basis, 1st level = 1 pt, 4th level = 4 points. Skills are bought from the skill table below. Abilities are listed under the respective class table.  To gain a higher ability the character has to  have the preceeding ability as a prerequisite and then go forth, adventure, find treasure etc to pay for training to gain the new ability as well as invest time in learning - this is a slight tweak on exsisting training rules in the DMG but to me it is now more of a reason to do it as opposed to it  being an optional part of the game - the character has to go out and get stuff to profit, put themselves at risk etc. Anyway onward... the character recieves any beginning abilities from the class ability table and then can decide what abilities they want to buy  (remembering they have to have the previous ability to be able to have and use the later abilities on their table.). After this the spell using characters are assigned beginning spells (usually 4) in consultation with the DM - I use the spell table in the DMG- they can buy spells with any left over points or keep a few to use in game to speed up skill or ability aquisition ( e.g. halving time and therefore cost of training- using this to fill in any gaps they might not have considered while building their character.) as well.
Lastly Money is rolled , equipment bought etc.  An option is to roll on the magic tables in the back of the DMG for parties starting above first level ( I have set probabilities based on Lv3-5 (based on a 1d3 roll).  Then you're ready to rumble.  There are other rules governing how to use spells or roll for skill outcomes  and some variations on that will be next;

Skill table;
Wpn:User can use this weapon with a plus to hit as level bought
Wpn Specialisation ( gives user +1 to hit/dam and AC while using that weapon - only available to Fighters, Rangers and Paladins, only bought once for each weapon associated with it)
Weapon Focus (gives user +1 to hit or damage or AC while using the weapon - available to the other classes, only bought once for each weapon associated with it)
Armour:Soft, Semi Rigid, Rigid - Not applicable to Magic Users, and Druids are limited to natural armours of said type.
Armour: Shield, Armour:Padded, Armour: Leather usable by Magic users.
ID Plant Type
ID Animal Type
ID Pure water
Make Potions - usuable by spell users only
Make Scrolls- usable by spell users only
Make Enchanted item-usable by spell users only
Find remove traps
Open Locks
Pick pokets
Move silently
Hide in Shadows
Hear noise
Climb Walls
Read languages
Learn Alignment language
Disguise
Mask mind
Self Induced Catalepsy
Tracking Skill

Abilities table;
Fighter;
Initial;
1 Weapon spec
1 Weapon type
1 Armour type

Ranger;
Initial;
1 Weapon type
Giant class damage
Tracking skill
Surprise adjustment
Post start;
Spell use: Divine druidic - limited to 3rd level spells
Spell use Divine arcane - limited to 2nd level spells

Cleric;
Initial;
Spell use :Divine
Turn Undead / Command Undead

Druid;
Initial;
Spell use Divine (Druidic)
Speak one animal language
Post;
Pass through overgrown areas at normal speed and without trace/ Speak four animal language
Immunity from charm spells cast by woodland creatures/Speak four animal language
Change form/Speak four animal languages

 Paladin (In our games they are considered under a priest not fighter subclass as they are seen as the 'fighting' arm of the church)
Initial;
1 Weapon
1 Armour
Detect Evil
+2 saving bonus
Immune to all forms of disease
Lay hands
Cure disease
Protection from evil 1" radius
Post;
Turn undead/Command undead
Call Warhorse
Holy Sword adjustments
Spell use : Divine

Magic User;
Initial;
Spell Use:Arcane

Illusionist;
Initial;
Spell Use:Arcane(Illusions)

Monk;
Initial;
Gain movement1: add 5"
Open hand attach doing 1d6
Stunning ability
AC adjustment: -2 off AC
Post;
AC adjustment: -2 off AC
Gain Movement2: add 5"/Not subject to any disease
Open hand attacks: 2 pr round/Not subject to haste or slow spealls
Open hand attach damage = 2d6/Heal self
Ac adjustment: -2 off AC/resistance to charm etc spells
Gain Movement3; add 5"/Psionis resistance
Open hand attack: 3 pr round/ immune to poison
Open hand damage = 4d6/immune to geas and quests
AC adjustemnt: -4 off AC
Quivering palm.
As you can see I have chose not to do the table for theif or Assasin as we play that anyone can be these - its more a question of moral choice not profession, but if this choice does not sit well with you feel free to create your own tables.
Also if the text states restrictions on race or class then these have to be observed.  The attracting followrs or building strongholds stuff is left up to the character by role playing or announcing that is what they are wanting to do ( as well as having permissions to do so by those inpower re land)
Next..how the heck does this work? (hopefully I'll complete this prior to the annual camping trip. See ya soon and until then....Game On!
Steve

Social Contract

So resisted doing one of these but can see its worth in shortening down the conversation between GM/DM/Ref and Players (which ever side Im on)...















































I'd have to say that this applies to me if I am in the PLayers role as well.
Anyway Keep Calm and Carry On!....