Call of Cthulhu 7

Investigator Handbook
I have mentioned before that playing Call of Cthulhu in the early eighties was how I learned to role-play. The new 7th edition Call of Cthulhu (CoC) Keeper Rulebook and Investigator Handbook are, I believe, an excellent way to learn role-playing today. They are not short works and I don't mean they are for the faint-of-heart, mildly curious about this hobby sort of weekend explorer. Rather if a person has decided to commit to learning to role-play, I can think of no better introduction. The CoC books spell out just what good role-playing is and how to do it. There is so much good advice scattered throughout each volume that is seems impossible to come away from a cover-to-cover read without learning something to improve one's game, even for an old-timer like me.
The Investigator Handbook is focused on good role-play from the player's perspective and within the parameters of the COC game, of course. So much of role-playing crosses the game rules boundary and is applicable to almost any rules, making CoC's Investigator Handbook almost a universal role-play aid. Example, The Investigator Handbook informs the player how to make a PC for the CoC game, specifically for the default 1920's setting. In going over the CoC chargen specifics advice is given for how to generally create a PC for any game. Using a combination of die rolls, preconceived imaginings and "random" tables, the player develops a fleshed-out PC with referee approval.
Investigator's in CoC are not superheroes. They are built to resemble people of the 1920's (using the default setting) and therefore have every-day abilities and skills. The ability to investigate, as the name implies, is the chief function of the investigator (not killing and looting?). Starting with an idea, an imagined character concept, perhaps a mental image of the PC, the player rolls dice for their attributes. The attributes may suggest something a bit different than what was imagined and it's the player's job to start modifying the concept. Choosing a profession and associated skills the player brings the PC to life. Random tables can be consulted for things like appearance, family, contacts and son, but players should feel free to be inspired by what they see on the tables rather than slavishly copy down the result of every roll.
Giving thought to the PC's motivations, goals, how they fit into society and how they get on with other party members is part of the chargen process as well. Much of each PC's "personality" will grow from playing the PC over several sessions, but it is helpful to have some idea "who" it is that you are playing from the start. Other player responsibilities are gently addressed in the Investigator Handbook. Topics such as planning out the group's goals, making contacts for future play, knowing when to run away, staying within character and within period/milieu are discussed. These are things we all struggle to learn at first and for some players, myself included, I gathered this information slowly over many years in the hobby.
One thing that there isn't much of in the Investigator Handbook is the actual rules of play. Yes, it is assumed this is the only book the players will need in order to play CoC 7th. The Investigator Handbook gives the players what they need, just not all the extra stuff.  CoC is a percentile (d100) system which is rather intuitive from the start. The Investigator Handbook tells you how to roll the dice and test for success against your various skills, which are described in some detail as to what can be done using each skill. The rest of the rules, monsters and keeper advice are in the Keeper Rulebook, which is only necessary for the referee or keeper. This is old school!  Tell me what you would like to do and I as referee/keeper will inform you how we will go about resolving your chosen action. The keeper is not only the final arbiter of the rules at their table, they may be the only player that knows the rules well. This is a big responsibility for the keeper, but it is a style of play which harkens back to the origins of the game and helps keep the sense of mystery and surprise alive!
In one definite sense, CoC 7th ed. Investigator Handbook (and Keeper Rulebook) is not old school. The layout and artwork is very professional and top quality by modern standards. Art can evoke imagination and the combination of old timey 1920's images and stunning mythos illustrations easily sets the stage for imagining oneself as an investigator of the macabre in the era of tommy guns and prohibition.

Thinking about Hit Points

Applying a Little Imagination
In a recent discussion with a fellow gamer the topic turned to hit points and what constitutes damage and healing. White Box is a game which treats many aspects of the adventure in an abstract manner. Hit points and hit dice for monsters are just such areas of abstraction. White Box makes no mention of what hit points are other than being the number of points of damage the character (or monster) can sustain before death. Obviously being burned by dragon breath and stabbed by an orc can result in taking damage to one's hit points, but does each of those lost hit points equal blood loss or tissue damage? Vol. III The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures "healing" is described as being the result of magic or natural healing which occurs at the rate of 1 hit point recovered each day of rest (presumably in a safe place) after the first. There seems to be no permanent result of having been wounded or damaged to near death and there is no incremental loss of abilities as one takes damage. The door for such interpretation is left open, however, for such rules as stated in Vol. I Men & Magic, "Whether sustaining accumulative hits will otherwise affect a character is left to the discretion of the referee."
Well, in case we want to determine how sustaining hits might affect a character it seems important to determine what those hits may represent. Blood loss and physical injury is assumed, but what about fatigue? Using up one's luck? The deterioration of mental sharpness, loss of the will to continue, mental fatigue, sanity - all these and more could possibly be folded into the accumulation of damage and loss of hit points. Time resting safely would certainly restore such loss (as could magic).
In later Editions the concept of hit points is carried forward and new mechanics are introduced such as "short rests" which can restore some lost hit points. The "short rest", taking just a few minutes to refresh, drink and maybe eat something, to catch one's breath and regroup, or maybe patch-up and bind some wounds, all makes sense if we consider accumulated damage to hit points as including fatigue and other conditions. A "House-rule" that results in some deterioration of abilities (a minus to hit, perhaps) corresponding to accumulation of hit point damage can also be rationalized. Use of a hit location table (or die) may also be useful in determining the nature and effect of wounds if it occurs as a result of accumulating damage.
Whether your hero succumbs to the cumulative effect of many small cuts, or having finally been worn down by fending off the worst effects of many blows, or having finally run out of luck and taking that one serious wound that drains the will to resist may not really matter, but such narrative can sometimes add to the fun of the game. "Take two hit points of damage." can get rather monotonous at higher levels when the result can be repeated many times over. White Box is foremost a game of imagination and the imagination tends to work best with a little prompting. Therefore it seems appropriate to me for the referee to use descriptive language when describing the results of various die rolls. Narrating, "Twisting aside just in time to avoid the worst of a blow aimed at your midsection, you lose two points as your luck begins to run out." or "The savage orc, slobbering and howling deals you two points of damage as your nerves fray a little more." can widen the player's interpretation of damage and help everyone imagine a more complete encounter where more than blood loss is at stake. Healing descriptions can also be somewhat detailed, but should perhaps come from the players themselves. "As the earth cleric kneels beside you, he picks up a handful of dirt and asks if you will receive the healing power of the Earthshaker? As you nod, he rubs the dirt into your wound which ceases to bleed and slowly closes, first leaving a red scar, but even that quickly fades."

Thinking about Experience

In Pursuit of Experience Points
The game is really about having fun with friends. Other than fun the goal of White Box seems to be to gain experience in terms of points earned from winning gold and defeating monsters. Experience points allow one to eventually advance their character's abilities so that they are able to take on greater challenges, win more gold and defeat more powerful monsters. Simple, yes, but worth taking a closer look at I think.
Playing a character that can improve is a big jump forward in 1974. It is nothing new for a wargamer to play the in-game part of Napoleon or some other general, or even the part of Conan or some other hero. Those "roles" are usually static however, Napoleon doesn't improve over time, his abilities or rank as a general is usually a given stat in whatever rules are being used. The idea that a character in a game improves with play adds considerably to the player's ownership of the character. It readily becomes my fighter or my knight who has gained a couple levels of experience.
In White Box experience determines level. A given amount of experience points is needed to advance from level to level. The amount varies according to character class and this is one way to "balance" the different abilities of the classes. Experience is awarded in terms of points, one point per gold recovered and brought back home and for defeating monsters (not necessarily killing them). The chief benefit one seems to gain from having a high attribute score is with the prime attribute. In White Box each of the three character classes has its own prime attribute, Strength for Fighting Men, Wisdom for Clerics and Intelligence for Magic Users. A score of 13 or 14 gains a 5% increase to earned experience and a score of 15 or higher entitles the PC to 10% increase in experience, thereby allowing the character to advance more quickly.
Advancing to the next level is chiefly how PCs become more powerful.  A new level adds hit points to one's total and they directly determine how long the PC can hang in, adventure and fight on! Saving Throws are another way PCs improve their ability to survive and Saves increase as the PC gains levels as well. New levels can add additional spells for Clerics (and undead turning ability) and for Magic Users and can increase one's ability to hit monsters.
Experience points determine level and in White Box each level has a named rank associated with it until one reaches the top ranks known as Lord for Fighting Men, Wizard for Magic Users and Patriarch for Clerics. A lord holds a higher rank than a Superhero, who in turn holds a higher rank than a Hero. The titles such as Lord, imply a certain social status which goes with the rank or level. In feudal society a Lord is a landholder who is above ordinary folk and is in fact part of the nobility of a realm. The game holds true to this concept by entitling the Lord to build a castle, recruit followers and become ennobled. The Wizard and Patriarch enjoy similar status.
Experience points and their relationship to gold is an abstract game concept based loosely on the observation that human experience generally results in improvement. The more experienced we are, the better we are able to perform, understand, anticipate, respond appropriately and succeed. It is why experience is often linked to salary in the real world. Acquiring gold in the game represents success in a number of possible ways, being observant, clever, careful, crafty, persuasive, sneaky, forceful, and just lucky in play. Experience is reinforcement for players and what ever the referee awards experience for is going to shape the player's in game choices. Experience points motivate.

Advanced Fighting Fantasy Deluxe

3-in-1
"Advanced" and "Deluxe", how could I pass on this with all that in the title! OK, it's a really cool book and a weighty tome at 430+ pages, but for those familiar with the Graham Bottley Advanced Fighting Fantasy reboot, the material contained here-in is a repackaging rather than a new rewrite. Having said that, I want to talk about what a wonderful "lite" rules system Advanced Fighting Fantasy is and what an amazing introductory FRP game this is.
Fighting Fantasy is the brain child of British designers Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston, who by-the-way, also founded Games Workshop. The Fighting Fantasy product line began as a series of pick-your-path solo game books which were marketed in book stores alongside the paperback fantasy novels, aimed at a younger audience and served as introduction to gaming for countless numbers back in the 1980s and '90s. In 1984 Fighting Fantasy world was ported over to Fighting Fantasy - The Introductory Role-playing Game, which was later revised and expanded with help from Marc Gascoigne and Pete Tamlyn into the Advanced Fighting Fantasy Role-playing Game. The series at this point included Dungeoneer (introductory underground adventure), Blacksand (taking the adventure into the city) and Allansia (wilderness adventure), Out of the Pit (monster book) and Titan (world guide).
Starting in 2011 Arion Games and Graham Bottley re-worked the Advanced Fighting Fantasy system fixing some alleged problems and began releasing their own version of the game. The old material saw new life and Arion Games has added new titles as well, Beyond The Pit (new monster book) and The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (recasting the first FF solo book as a tabletop group adventure). Advanced Fighting Fantasy Deluxe combines the text of Advanced Fighting Fantasy with Out of the Pit and Titan in a hardcover format.
Fighting Fantasy, even in its Advanced form, is a simple role-playing game. Characters have just three or four stats, the fourth being Magic if they are able to use Magic, the other three are Skill, Stamina and Luck. Skill is a combination of strength, dexterity, intelligence, ability to interact socially. In play, one rolls dice, adds the Skill score and compares the total to a target number. In the case of combat, the target number is what your opponent's dice roll plus Skill score. The higher roll inflicts wounds based on a roll on a weapons table (heavier weapons can do more damage), armour (its a British game) reduces damage which comes off Stamina. Each character has Special Skill points which can be assigned to Special Skills such as Dark Seeing, Sword, Pole Arms, Pick Lock, Magic and many more. Special Skills add to the Skill ability making the character better at those tasks.
The Luck ability is used when no Skill seems appropriate or when just being "lucky" is required. Luck is expendable. Each time the player tests his/her character's Luck the score goes down 1 point regardless of outcome. The more one relies on Luck, the quicker one burns through their Luck. Casting a spell requires a Magic skill roll to succeed and burns some Stamina points. And that is about all there is to the basic rules.
The monsters include the usual suspects found in most fantasy role-playing games as well as a few unique to the Fighting Fantasy world. The default setting is a world called Titan which is described in detail in this Deluxe volume. Titan has all the traditional fantasy settings one usually encounters, knights and western European feudalism, a pirate area, desert and Arabian Nights, even Samurai and Ninja of the "Far East". There are Elven Forests and Dwarven Mountain Kingdoms to visit, wilderlands to conquer and the "underground" to explore. There is really nothing unique about Titan, but I think it is a well done typical fantasy milieu.
Fighting Fantasy has always been about accessibility and the Advanced Fighting Fantasy Deluxe book brings the three key components of the game, rules, bestiary and world book together under one hardcover. The system is so easy and intuitive that it quickly disappears into the background allowing players to concentrate on imagining themselves in the situation of their characters. Honestly, I can't really imagine FF being my only game, but as an introductory game, or for the occasional lite play, it is quick to learn and fun to play and those with more experience will be reminded why they love this hobby as they rediscover the freedom to relax and have fun just "role-playing". 

Print On Demand

Old is New
Modern technology not only allows us to carry tomes of information in our pocket by way of our mobile devices, it also brings a world-wide market place to our finger tips allowing us access to purchase original printings through second hand sources and new prints of old titles. Thanks to Wizards of the Coast, most of the old TSR publications are available again at reasonable prices along with a bunch of new game material written for the old systems using the Open Gaming License. There has never been a better time to be a gamer than now.
I recently purchased print on demand copies of the Advanced game 1st Edition books because I was curious about the quality of the books. The new books stack-up well with the WOTC premium reprints from 2012 and appear to be taken from those originals, except they don't have gold edges and ribbon bookmarks. Otherwise the books seem of similar quality to the premium reprints.  The covers are glossy rather than the flat finish given the WOTC reprints, but show the same design - a cut-down version of the 1st Edition cover art. Binding seems durable, well in comparison to other modern glued bindings it's durable. Whether these books will hold up as well as the stitched original editions only time will tell...and I am quite certain my reprints won't get the same amount of use/abuse as my original TSR copies.

As a player I frequently flip through the pages of my originals, studying monsters in the Monster Manuel, committing many details to memory, rolling up characters with the Players Handbook open before me, consulting spells during play when running a Magic User and consulting the Dungeon Masters Guide for those ever needed To Hit tables as referee, my books saw a lot of wear even though I ran a White Box style of the Advanced game (DIY rulings not rules), I frequently took from those tomes freely combining versions. As a player in another referee's (1st Ed. DM's) campaign, the PHB was usually the only reference I took along to the game.

In the Preface to the 1st Edition Advanced PHB, Gary Gygax names himself "the final arbiter of fantasy role playing" and states, "there is a need for a certain amount of uniformity from campaign to campaign..." while attempting to qualify his meaning.  As I understand him, Mr. Gygax is not arguing against customizing elements of the game to reflect the unique qualities of individual campaigns, but rather offing a standardized set of norms suitable for organized "tournament" play at conventions. He emphasizes, logical, sequential and understandable as goals of the new presentation. He also takes the opportunity to jab at "wrong, bad fun" styles of play with which he obviously disagrees (as "final arbiter", of course!).
For the hobby in general, the Advanced game took the game in a different direction - one away from DIY improvisation towards more complete, understandable rules which encouraged looking up the answer rather than making up the answer. Players and DMs (as referees are now called) look in the books for what to do at the game table more and think a little less often about imaginative, creative ways to solve in-game problems. The Advanced game is a subtle shift in this regard and much imagination and creativity is still needed to play it. It is my hope that by keeping it (and the Original and Basic Editions) alive and available to a new audience, the old-style of play I so much enjoy will continue to exist well beyond my lifetime. Why? Because I wish you all the fun I have enjoyed thanks to these games!

Five Ancient Kingdoms

Arabian Nights RPG
Five Ancient Kingdoms (5AK) is a neo old school RPG in the three little books format pictured. Author Jonathan Becker has re-imagined White Box and the Chainmail man-to-man/Fantasy Supplement rules to bring them into line with modern game conventions and convert the milieu to something closer to the Arabian Nights than medieval Europe. I like what Mr. Becker has done. It is a fresh take on White Box and the custom milieu demonstrates the essential qualities of rebuilding the game for a specific setting.
Vol. 1 Men & Mettle describes the character generation method and game mechanics. 5AK uses a unique dice convention where the "one" is read as a zero (5AK comes with 4 special "zero" dice). Ability scores are the usual rolled up with three dice and zero's are re-rolled. Hit Points are re-rolled at the beginning of each session. Combat, skill checks and saves are roll two dice plus adds and compare to a target number. There are four core character classes are Hero, corresponding to Fighting Men, Saint (Shaman), similar to Clerics, Magician, or Magic User, and Thief, well, Thief! There are also sub-classes of each.
Alignment is the traditional three, Law, Neutrality and Chaos, but with a twist of Orientalism thrown in. Motivation is what drives the PC and can be a desire for fortune, duty, love, family, vengeance, faith, power, glory, knowledge or just about anything the player can imagine. Social status is important in 5AK and climbing the social ladder can be a principle motivation.  Rules for Romance are included (initial attraction) and love and courtship can also play a role in the game if desired.
Faith in 5AK is centered on Salama (The One True Faith), the principle religion of the Salamaic Caliphate, the ruling regime of the principle country of Barica. Chisholms and Arasimians are followers of similar religions and the three suggest comparisons with the historic middle eastern monotheistic religions. Pagans also exist and the Shaman class serves them as Saints serve the single god faiths. Milieu names and geography all have a familiar middle eastern, but slightly different feel to it.  There is no map provided, but really none is needed. Just imagine our own middle east circa 800 CE.
Vol. 2 is sub-titled Magic & Monsters and the booklet contains just that. The rules for magic differ some from White Box in they require a successful dice roll to cast a spell (similar to magic in Chainmail's Fantasy Supplement). In 5AK the player of a Magician has more decisions to make regarding the best use of magic resources and must calculate risk of failure into the equation. The three principle faiths all see magic as evil and the Magician also has that to deal with. Spell lists are familiar yet tweaked to give a more Oriental feel. The monsters include some familiar creatures, but also many forms of jinn and giant folk with a more middle eastern origin.  Artifacts include intelligent swords (always a DM favorite!).
Vol. 3, sub-titled Dragon Master Secrets is the DM Guide. It further outlines the world, Barica and it's capitol Bagdabha, and the Five Ancient Kingdoms of Conzantium, Kitax, Sindar, Thelasheba, and Assygaria. Adventure is expected to include urban intrigue, the wilderness - as one makes holy pilgrimage to the birthplace of The Prophet at Chem perhaps or traveling to other cities and nations. The underworld can be visited by delving beneath the city of Basur built upon the ruins of ancient Suumat or entering other buried cities, tombs, caves, or castle dungeons. In the tradition of the first fantasy campaigns, players may find their characters ennobled and eligible to build strongholds, amass an army, build a fleet and join the struggle of nations. Rules are included for maritime adventure (ala Sinbad), naval engagements and army conflicts. Some DM advice regarding awarding treasure, experience points and other topics specifically aimed at 5AK rounds out Vol. 3.
Barica is an unusual and fantastic setting for a campaign and I am trying to find a place for it in my gaming schedule. Mr. Becker has done a nice job melding his chosen rules, heavily modified, but recognizable as having White Box roots, with his Arabian Nights influenced milieu. His choices indicate applied imagination and logic to me and demonstrate the flexibility of the original system. The fantasy of the Arabian Nights seems underutilized in the hobby in comparison with dark age and medieval European motifs. Maybe it's time to grab the flying carpet, rub the magic lamp and test wits with the jinni?

Using Chainmail Combat

"I Hit It With My Axe"
In 1974 when Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson published White Box the designers assumed many players would already be using Chainmail's Fantasy Supplement for combat rules. The three Little Brown Books were campaign rules to use the Fantasy Supplement and Man-to-Man rules in Chainmail and expand them beyond anything that had been done before. Chainmail is listed as part of the recommended equipment for play along with dice, paper and pencils.
Chainmail fills in a lot of the blanks in the LBBs, like initiative/turn sequence...role a die and high score chooses to move or counter-move. The Fighting Ability column on the Statistics Regarding Classes Table in Men & Magic is for use with Chainmail's Man-To-Man or Fantasy Combat Table. Using the Chainmail tables allows the PC, especially the Fighting Men, to really pulverize opponents with multiple hits - a third level Swordsman attacks as 3 men (or a Hero-1) and can potentially hit three opponents, killing each with good damage rolls, all in one turn. A score of 6 or better is needed to hit an opponent wearing leather armor and a shield with a two-handed sword.
The same third level Swordsman using the alternative system presented in Vol. I Men & Magic will need to score a 13 or higher on a d20 roll to hit an opponent with leather armor and shield. The type of weapon used in the alternative system doesn't change the to-hit number or affect the amount of damage done (d6 for all weapons). Against single hit-die opponents, the alternative system may allow the third level Fighting Man three attacks depending on interpretation (Strategic Review Vol. 1, No. 2). There remains a difference in chances of success, however. A d20 score of 13 or higher is a 40% chance to-hit with each roll. A score of 6 or better on two d6 is likely to occur about 72% of the time making the PC using Chainmail more likely to hit the opponent - multiple times!
The odds of scoring a successful hit using the Chainmail tables varies according to weapon used. For example, the same Swordsman using a hand axe will need to score a 9 or better on two d6  (about a 28% chance of success) to achieve a hit. Weapon selection is Chainmail can also influence who attacks first (longer reach) and whether opponents can step under one's weapon for an advantage (after the first round of melee).
Combining Chainmail and White Box is not a simple task. There remain many unexplained questions regarding how the two work together.  White box introduces hit-points and hit dice which are not covered in Chainmail.  In Chainmail a hit is usually a kill unless dealing with higher level creatures (including Heroes) which take multiple hits to kill. The Hero takes four simultaneous hits (kills) to eliminate them using the Chainmail non-Fantasy Combat Tables. Otherwise there is no effect. It is left to the referee to determine if a second level character takes two simultaneous hits to kill them or just one, or maybe even a second hit, simultaneous or not?I suppose it helps to remember Chainmail came first and stood alone as a rules set. White Box is the "add-on".
The group I learned White Box with did not have access to Chainmail and the system we first used for combat was the "alternative" d20. As this system became the standard for all later editions, it was many years before I even gave the Chainmail "alternative" a look. I find it is an interesting change to the game. There are some simulacrum and OSR re-interpretations that use the 2d6 Chainmail combat system and I find them interesting (esp. Five Ancient Kingdoms and Spellcraft & Swordplay).
As for the subtitle to this post, it is indeed a shameless reference to an entertaining video series of the same title by Zak Smith and friends.The knight & dragon image is taken from Chainmail.