Who Am I Playing?
Role-playing games are about playing a character or fictional person in a fictional milieu (usually) using some dice and some rules to develop a story with friends while often sitting around a table, but more recently often while online at the computer. Many games devote several pages of rules to generating this game character in some detail. Often the player is encouraged to begin character creation by imagining the kind of person they would like to play in the game. Many character sheets (record of character abilities, etc.) have spaces to describe the physical looks of the character such as eye color, height and weight, etc. Some have a blank box or space and encourage you to draw a sketch or doodle of the character to show others what they look like. Some even have a space for background material to be recorded.
A central theme of most role-playing games (RPGs) is that the player not play themselves, but rather attempt to take on the role of an imaginary person in a different world with motives, skills, and personality distinct from the person who is playing the character. Sometimes this character is drawn directly from a literary source or perhaps you are asked to play a person from history. In those cases the player has some resources in the form of what is already known about the character which can be used to inspire their game play. Generally the character will be entirely made-up just for the particular game, however.
So who is this character I am to play during the current game? Most games have guidelines to help define what sort of characters the game is about - in other words, who the cast of characters may include. Most old school games (the ones seem to I like best) suggest that the player should work with the game's referee (person setting the stage and facilitating play) to develop a character for play. That way the character fits well with the intended milieu and the referee can assist with any questions the player may have.
Alright, I have done that and now have before me a filled out character sheet, which is really just a piece of paper with some values written on it. Who is this? I could argue that the character is fleshed out, develops and becomes whole, only during play. Some players like to imagine elaborate backstories for characters, which is fine if they are consistent with the milieu the referee is working to develop, but people change and so do game characters. How the character grows and evolves over the course of play is one of the more interesting aspects of long-term play and often is a central theme in the story which emerges from play.
Play to see what happens is one approach to the RPG hobby and one which I am particularly fond of. Rather than script out a story and hope or nudge the players to follow the script (sometimes derisively called railroading), I prefer the freedom of a sandbox where players go where they want and we all find out what the story is together as it is happening. The same approach works for characters - play them to find out who they are. It's a more intuitive approach to the game, but can be a fresh alternative to planning and designing. (Using intuition one "feels" their way through rather than thinks their way ahead.)
Therefore with character sheet in hand I set out to discover who this fictional person is. Dice will play a part - it's a game after all, as will the in-game decisions I make (some thought through, some following intuition because "it just feels right") during play. If the PC lives long enough, we the players will find out what makes this PC unique. We may even come to like the character and care what befalls them. Whatever happens, it will be entertaining to play and find out together.
Friday, August 31, 2018
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Power & Influence
Not Power and Influence
Undead Viking mentioned this topic in his video blog I watched this morning over on Youtube and it has rolled around inside my head until now. Player characters need to have the power to influence events and be the actors in the collaborative story that emerges from game-play. To that end their power and influence is relevant, but also relative. They certainly don't need to be the most powerful and influential figures in the fictional society that comprises the game milieu. In fact, those roles are best played by NPCs. They do need to be the hero of their own story.
Referee advice gleaned from a number of sources tells us that (in most games) starting players should begin play relatively weak and increase in power over time. That is the basis for the level system in White Box and the many editions which follow. The game functions best if the PCs start out as nobodies, or at least as the up and yet to come generation rather than the established leaders of society. A campaign based around the newly annointed would run against the norm, but could be interesting...something like the young PCs Alexander or Frederick thrust onto the throne at an early age and given the opportunity to earn the title "The Great", but I digress.
Performing tasks in service of the king, or leading the rebellion to replace the king are roles more suited to low level play. The ultimate goal, if the PC survives, is to increase in levels to the point where the PC has attained power and influence enough to build a stronghold, attract followers and become a player in the politics of the region. This accomplishment marks a major milestone in the evolution of a campaign and a transition in the role the PC plays. For most of the campaign leading up to this point, the PC has functioned beneath those at the top, accumulating power in terms of coin and ability and influence in terms of social rank and friendships formed during play.
This balance is part of the referee's responsibility. The PCs need to be relevant in terms of power, but obviously not overpowered to the point they intimidate the established power structure of the milieu. They do however need to be able to influence plot events and the established power structure through role-play. Undead Viking mentions the grim-dark play style and I use this term, borrowed from the literature sub-genre, to describe my preferred fantasy RPG milieu, one that is low magic, low powered and gritty, where life is cheap and everything seems a bit shady. Dungeon Horror! would be another term I rather like. The danger with a grim-dark setting is for the PC to feel helpless. The referee must avoid this by allowing (presenting) opportunities for the players to express level appropriate power and influence through their PCs.
Challenges are necessary for entertainment, but a feeling that success is possible must accompany the challenge. Occasional character demise instills a healthy sense of tension in the game, but too much character death and each character becomes meaningless and the game runs the risk of discouraging risk taking. My personal approach to balance is to referee in favor of the players, but to roll dice in the open and play the results as they fall. I have found that by designing challenges that I believe should be within the players' capabilities, and encouraging them to be creative and smart (and to roll well), an occasional run of bad luck results in character death as the dice dictate. Does that death sometimes feel random...Yes!
So the question is: what about random PC death? Is it a bad thing? I know that players prefer a meaningful death, a sacrifice that saves others or accomplishes a goal, but the random nature of dice will sometimes mean the PC just runs out of hit points and expires. I try to make even this an event in the campaign by giving the remaining PCs time to take a moment and address the loss. Honor the fallen, if you will. Players being players, they soon enough strip the body of everything valuable and move on.
A memorable death can make the story, however, and occasionally you can see it coming and role-play it out making the most of the opportunity. In a recent game of Dungeon Crawl Classics, my Dwarf ran out luck and ended up alone facing the big bad (the last of his companions having run-away to fight another day). I announced he raised his hammer and began singing his death ballad. This went on for a number of rounds as the referee seemed to enjoy missing mister dwarf who continued to swing and sing. Finally a critical hit to the heart put an end to the death song. Meaningful - not particularly. Fun - most definitely!
Undead Viking mentioned this topic in his video blog I watched this morning over on Youtube and it has rolled around inside my head until now. Player characters need to have the power to influence events and be the actors in the collaborative story that emerges from game-play. To that end their power and influence is relevant, but also relative. They certainly don't need to be the most powerful and influential figures in the fictional society that comprises the game milieu. In fact, those roles are best played by NPCs. They do need to be the hero of their own story.
Referee advice gleaned from a number of sources tells us that (in most games) starting players should begin play relatively weak and increase in power over time. That is the basis for the level system in White Box and the many editions which follow. The game functions best if the PCs start out as nobodies, or at least as the up and yet to come generation rather than the established leaders of society. A campaign based around the newly annointed would run against the norm, but could be interesting...something like the young PCs Alexander or Frederick thrust onto the throne at an early age and given the opportunity to earn the title "The Great", but I digress.
Performing tasks in service of the king, or leading the rebellion to replace the king are roles more suited to low level play. The ultimate goal, if the PC survives, is to increase in levels to the point where the PC has attained power and influence enough to build a stronghold, attract followers and become a player in the politics of the region. This accomplishment marks a major milestone in the evolution of a campaign and a transition in the role the PC plays. For most of the campaign leading up to this point, the PC has functioned beneath those at the top, accumulating power in terms of coin and ability and influence in terms of social rank and friendships formed during play.
This balance is part of the referee's responsibility. The PCs need to be relevant in terms of power, but obviously not overpowered to the point they intimidate the established power structure of the milieu. They do however need to be able to influence plot events and the established power structure through role-play. Undead Viking mentions the grim-dark play style and I use this term, borrowed from the literature sub-genre, to describe my preferred fantasy RPG milieu, one that is low magic, low powered and gritty, where life is cheap and everything seems a bit shady. Dungeon Horror! would be another term I rather like. The danger with a grim-dark setting is for the PC to feel helpless. The referee must avoid this by allowing (presenting) opportunities for the players to express level appropriate power and influence through their PCs.
Challenges are necessary for entertainment, but a feeling that success is possible must accompany the challenge. Occasional character demise instills a healthy sense of tension in the game, but too much character death and each character becomes meaningless and the game runs the risk of discouraging risk taking. My personal approach to balance is to referee in favor of the players, but to roll dice in the open and play the results as they fall. I have found that by designing challenges that I believe should be within the players' capabilities, and encouraging them to be creative and smart (and to roll well), an occasional run of bad luck results in character death as the dice dictate. Does that death sometimes feel random...Yes!
So the question is: what about random PC death? Is it a bad thing? I know that players prefer a meaningful death, a sacrifice that saves others or accomplishes a goal, but the random nature of dice will sometimes mean the PC just runs out of hit points and expires. I try to make even this an event in the campaign by giving the remaining PCs time to take a moment and address the loss. Honor the fallen, if you will. Players being players, they soon enough strip the body of everything valuable and move on.
A memorable death can make the story, however, and occasionally you can see it coming and role-play it out making the most of the opportunity. In a recent game of Dungeon Crawl Classics, my Dwarf ran out luck and ended up alone facing the big bad (the last of his companions having run-away to fight another day). I announced he raised his hammer and began singing his death ballad. This went on for a number of rounds as the referee seemed to enjoy missing mister dwarf who continued to swing and sing. Finally a critical hit to the heart put an end to the death song. Meaningful - not particularly. Fun - most definitely!
Friday, August 24, 2018
Index Card RPG
This is the 2nd edition of of the Index Card RPG Core book (ICRPG) by Brandish Gilhelm aka Hankerin' Ferinale. The author has run a video blog on Youtube for years and can be found by searching for Runehammer. He is a high energy, insightful and creative guy with a lot of gifts to share. ICRPG feels exactly like that...a gift for us gamers.
The 2e core book itself is 200+ pages of reductionist role-playing game design. Mr. Gilhelm started out some years ago with 5e and a desire to reduce it to its core in an attempt to "hot rod" the game something like car enthusiasts who hot rod a stock built automobile to make it faster, more exciting and distinctive looking. I think he has done a great job, although at this point, I think the game's name could be re-tooled.
ICRPG started out replacing terrain and physical combat displays with art drawn on index cards, hence the name. Over time and play development, the index card gimmic kinda took a back seat to the game mechanics in my opinion. What we have in the 2e core book is a lean, mean RPG system that is original and creative and re frames how I look at the games I play with other systems.
ICRPG mechanics center on just a handful of concepts: Turn, Target, Attempt, Effort, Loot and Stats.
The game is always played in turns. The referee starts each turn with asking a player what they want to do and then proceeds around the table asking each player in turn what they want their PC to do. If dice are called for the player makes an Attempt by rolling a d20 and trying to beat the Target number for the encounter/room/ what-ever. Some tasks such as killing a foe, deciphering an ancient tome or tracking prey may require Effort be rolled for over several turns to eventually accomplish the task. Success leads to Loot which adds to the PCs ability. Stats are numbers that add to Attempt rolls and are also descriptive of the PC's abilities. Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma are the character's Stats. Armor makes it harder for enemies to hit you and is purchased like by the point like your Stats.
Turns can represent a variable length of time, such as Moments in combat, or Hours when not in combat or even Days when traveling or spending downtime. The point in ICRPG is each player states their Attempts for each Turn, that way everyone is always engaged in the game.
Each encounter, room, challenge or situation the referee presents has a Target number associated with it. All Attempts made during that encounter/situation use the same Target number. Everyone at the table knows what their odds are of success and informed risk taking is thereby facilitated.
Some tasks are accomplished with a single successful Attempt, others take Effort which is represented by rolling an Effort die and accumulating Effort points until 10 is reached whereby a Heart is achieved. ICRPG uses Hearts to measure how tough something is. Creatures have one or more Heart. A puzzle can have a number of Hearts. A mystery can require Effort scores to equal one or more Hearts to be solved.
Loot (fun and story, of course) is what the game is all about. In ICRPG advancement is about acquiring Loot. Your gear makes you better at doing stuff and the accumulation of Loot is the reward for success and allows your PC to take on bigger and badder challenges. You don't really level-up in ICRPG, instead you accumulate Loot.
There is a lot more to ICRPG 2e, but that is the basics. It is a class based system with magic and technology that can support play on many different world settings. Two are detailed in the core rules book. Alfheim is the author's basic fantasy realm and its races, classes, magic and critters are described in enough detail to get the referee started on their own version of Alfheim. Warp Shell is the author's basic space opera setting and includes totally different races, classes and high-technology vehicles and gizmos.
Mr. Gilhelm has some excellent observations and advice to share on a number of game topics including painting miniatures, making tabletop terrain and running adventure games of all types and his videos are among the best I have seen in this hobby. Mr. Gilhelm knows his stuff. His Game Mastery section includes more than an average helping of good advice and makes this book really deserve the "Essential" tag I give it. If I were to teach a course on tabletop RPGs this is the text I would assign for discussion.
The core book is illustrated throughout by the author who has a very engaging pen & ink style. The illustrations are B&W with occasional red details and I find the style works perfect for the index card terrain and minis that are available as print and play digital files. If you are interested in what the World's Most Popular Game might look like as seen through a philosophical reductionist's eye so as to be just the bare essentials of game play only, ICRPG seems to be just that. Personally, I am intrigued and I can't wait to get it to the table.
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Rules-Lite OSR Fantasy
I have recently become enamored with what I will call old school distillation games. These are ultra simple reductionist adventure game systems that draw their inspiration from the oldest version of the world's most popular adventure game, distill its essential concepts down to the basics and re-imagine simpler (modern) mechanics to achieve a similar goal.
I am finding there are a number of these and most of the ones I have looked at are quite clever and workable as a game. Many have a feel similar to a board game version of the White Box, although I am not quite sure why that is since there is no board other than our usual tabletop. My guess is that the simplified rule mechanics and an emphasis on dungeon crawling has a lot to do with the boardgame feel.
Lite rules are not a new thing in our hobby. Way back when, there were attempts at making introductory adventure games that usually used one or two six-sided dice and just a few simple rules. Character stats were minimal or non existent and an adventurer was often an adventurer - no class differences, no skill lists.
Friday, August 17, 2018
Prestige, Power & Influence
Give Players A Stake in the World
There is a reason White Box and other early editions of the World's Most Popular Adventure Game use titles to describe members of a certain class that share a level, such as all level 4 Fighting Men being known as Hero, 9th level as Lord. The title helps set a place for the PC as a member of a hierarchy within the fictional society of the game milieu.
White Box has been described as "zero to hero" reflecting the tendency of 1st level PCs to be very weak and vulnerable to damage and becoming more heroic as they advance in levels. This is a fair assessment of not only the White Box, but f all early editions of the world's most popular fantasy role-playing game when using the rules as written. Addressing the issue of PC vulnerability, i.e. weak starting hit points, many referees have used various methods to boost those starting character HPs. So what kind of folks do the 1st level PCs really represent? Taking the default medieval milieu into mind, the PC may be the average soldier, apprentice or cleric off on their own for the first time? A peasant of slightly better aptitude, maybe having acquired some "secret" skills now seeking their fortune away from the village where they were born? Freeborn who had the benefit of some class training who are out to make good in the world by doing heroic deeds? Perhaps the social climber who hope to prestige the American dream-story of rags to riches and sees adventuring down old tombs as the fastest way to acquire wealth and fame and the power and privilege that goes with it.
So you want to be a hero? Find a dragon to slay...a princess to rescue? That seems to be the draw that leads to a life of adventuring. Much like the gold fever of prospectors everywhere, adventurers dream of striking it big and retiring to a rich and comfortable post-adventuring life.
If they survive the delve, adventurers bring home some wealth and often enough gold is recovered to finance a nice villa, castle, tower or temple. That's what the game assumes PCs will do with their recovered fortune. And this makes them potential players in the fictional society of the game milieu. It is never too early for the referee to start playing to this end. Introduce the PCs to potential allies early on. Let them run afoul of future rivals. Encourage their hopes and dreams so that they will want to take an active part in the milieu long after they have more than enough treasure from adventuring. Moving veteran PCs into the role of patron, baron, merchant, adviser to the King or Queen (recall that princess you rescued!).
If it's adventure your party craves and you and your players have little interest in playing a different sort of game, which high level can become, you may want to offer gentle retirement as an option. This is actually my preference as a player. Retire the old PC and lets make a new one and explore his/her story. If it's old school, not every PC makes it to retirement. That is a remarkable accomplishment. Let it be so.
Character death should be a thing too. Try to make a little table drama happen whenever a PC is lost. It completes the story of that character and gives some closure for the player who is rolling up a new PC. Total party kill's should be epic...even if they aren't. As referee you have narrative control of the table, use it to dramatically end the tale of those particular PCs. Let their deaths mean something, and if possible use it as a jumping off point for the next chapter in the story. "Fifty years later a group of adventurers come upon the bodies of the slain PCs..." Those are your new 1st level player characters! Now start rolling them up.
A good campaign will outlive several generations of PCs. The world becomes the central theme that connects all the stories told of adventuring in that campaign. In this way the game becomes even more believable and real to the participants. The original game was envisioned to be all this and maybe more. Then again, maybe it is just a game about dungeon delving? It's your game, make it what you like.
There is a reason White Box and other early editions of the World's Most Popular Adventure Game use titles to describe members of a certain class that share a level, such as all level 4 Fighting Men being known as Hero, 9th level as Lord. The title helps set a place for the PC as a member of a hierarchy within the fictional society of the game milieu.
White Box has been described as "zero to hero" reflecting the tendency of 1st level PCs to be very weak and vulnerable to damage and becoming more heroic as they advance in levels. This is a fair assessment of not only the White Box, but f all early editions of the world's most popular fantasy role-playing game when using the rules as written. Addressing the issue of PC vulnerability, i.e. weak starting hit points, many referees have used various methods to boost those starting character HPs. So what kind of folks do the 1st level PCs really represent? Taking the default medieval milieu into mind, the PC may be the average soldier, apprentice or cleric off on their own for the first time? A peasant of slightly better aptitude, maybe having acquired some "secret" skills now seeking their fortune away from the village where they were born? Freeborn who had the benefit of some class training who are out to make good in the world by doing heroic deeds? Perhaps the social climber who hope to prestige the American dream-story of rags to riches and sees adventuring down old tombs as the fastest way to acquire wealth and fame and the power and privilege that goes with it.
So you want to be a hero? Find a dragon to slay...a princess to rescue? That seems to be the draw that leads to a life of adventuring. Much like the gold fever of prospectors everywhere, adventurers dream of striking it big and retiring to a rich and comfortable post-adventuring life.
If they survive the delve, adventurers bring home some wealth and often enough gold is recovered to finance a nice villa, castle, tower or temple. That's what the game assumes PCs will do with their recovered fortune. And this makes them potential players in the fictional society of the game milieu. It is never too early for the referee to start playing to this end. Introduce the PCs to potential allies early on. Let them run afoul of future rivals. Encourage their hopes and dreams so that they will want to take an active part in the milieu long after they have more than enough treasure from adventuring. Moving veteran PCs into the role of patron, baron, merchant, adviser to the King or Queen (recall that princess you rescued!).
If it's adventure your party craves and you and your players have little interest in playing a different sort of game, which high level can become, you may want to offer gentle retirement as an option. This is actually my preference as a player. Retire the old PC and lets make a new one and explore his/her story. If it's old school, not every PC makes it to retirement. That is a remarkable accomplishment. Let it be so.
Character death should be a thing too. Try to make a little table drama happen whenever a PC is lost. It completes the story of that character and gives some closure for the player who is rolling up a new PC. Total party kill's should be epic...even if they aren't. As referee you have narrative control of the table, use it to dramatically end the tale of those particular PCs. Let their deaths mean something, and if possible use it as a jumping off point for the next chapter in the story. "Fifty years later a group of adventurers come upon the bodies of the slain PCs..." Those are your new 1st level player characters! Now start rolling them up.
A good campaign will outlive several generations of PCs. The world becomes the central theme that connects all the stories told of adventuring in that campaign. In this way the game becomes even more believable and real to the participants. The original game was envisioned to be all this and maybe more. Then again, maybe it is just a game about dungeon delving? It's your game, make it what you like.
Thursday, August 16, 2018
Playing With Armor
The White Box alternative combat system, the original basis for all the D20 mechanics which have followed, delivers a fast and exciting tabletop combat experience when used pretty much as written (it requires some interpretation). Roll, hit-or-miss, damage, next player... add some creative description of wounds and misses and you have combat that seems to move along at a most exciting pace, giving players little downtime to wonder what it all means. The abstract nature of the system works nicely to produce results quickly, while giving players the chance to notice if they are over-matched and an opportunity to do something about that.
By comparison, many of the later iterations of D20 have layered complexity onto the basic system, frequently in pursuit of bringing in more realism in the form of transparent detail. In preperation for a recent one-shot I took the alternative combat system of Volume 1, Men & Magic and added some modifications inspired by Kevin Siembieda's combat mechanic as described in Palladium Fantasy 1st Ed. I won't attempt to go over the rules as they are written in Palladium Fantasy (PF), but I do recommend the book(s) as I find Mr. Siembieda's fantasy publications all fascinating.
The changes I introduce are designed to give players who are all from the group I regularly play Pathfinder with, something a bit more crunchy than standard LBB D20. Borrowing from PF, I set any roll above a 4 on the D20 as a hit. I told them that an adjusted to-hit score less than or equal to their target's armor landed on armor and resulted in no damage to the creature. However an adjusted to-hit roll greater than the target's armor rating results in a D6 damage (plus modifiers if any). I see this as simply a variation on the to-hit die mechanic they are used to and the players seemed to make the adjustment without trouble.
I borrowed the armor values from the alternative combat system D20 table for character levels 1-3 (all my pregen PCs were 3rd lvl) so plate and shield is 17, chain and shield 15 and leather and shield 13. The various PCs have adds to their hitting D20 rolls. As I mentioned, a score of 1-4 on the D20 is a miss. Any higher score is a hit and the player adds any adjustment and announces the resulting attacking total. If it exceeds the target's armor value, the player rolls for damage which is deducted from the target's hit points. A magic user in robes has an armor value of 5, so a roll of a 5 hits, but gets tangled in the robes and does no damage. A shieldless character wearing armor deducts 1 from the armor rating, as does an armored character sans helmet. So a PC wearing chainmail (armor rating 15), but having no shield and no helm has an armor rating of 13.
For the one-shot (which is resulting in a two-shot thanks to some excellent role-play on the player's part and my misjudgment of time) I gave no explanation of why I determined those values for armor and no one asked, but I have given the system considerable thought and decided to share my rationale in this post.
The jump between a magic user of armor rating 5 in heavy robes to a fighting man, cleric or thief in leather armor's 13 seemed to require some explanation. My thought is that combat training accounts for the considerable difference. Those with combat training, all PCs except magic users, will know how to deflect blows and roll with the punches so as to make the most of their armor, shield and weapons. Being without a helmet or shield limits the defender in this task in some ways, but the biggest difference is having the suit of armor or not. Even with training, the fighting man who has nothing to work with (unarmored) is an easy target for someone with weapons who knows how to use them. After all, we are not talking about martial artists, monks and Bruce Lee.
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Pathfinder Playtest 2e
No it isn't a breakfast cereal, nor an old school RPG, but after a weekend spent with the new Pathfinder 2e beta (PF2) I am excited to play this game. It's PF so there are lots of moving parts and a 430+ page beta rulebook that has no bestiary section (its own 120+ page download). The rulebook, playtest adventure and all the peripherals are free downloads on the Paizo website.
The book/.pdf cover art is by Wayne Reynolds and is of the high quality, imagination inspiring type we have come to associate with Paizo products (yes, that's a goblin PC). Interior art (also by Mr. Reynolds) is a mix of full color pieces (some from previous publications) and some sketches that give the book a work in progress look - a technique I saw in FFG's Genesys and very appropriate to a beta. Am I the playtester Paizo wants to hear from? I am not sure. Is Paizo interested in bringing some of the OSR folks into their fold?
So what does an Original Edition/White Box guy like me like about PF2? At this point, there is a lot for me to like. For starters, it is one book with a manageable number of character options and rules. The Combat system is cleaned up and perhaps a bit less tied to the grid. Each round a PC has three actions and a reaction. Fighters are the only ones who get attacks of opportunity (unless you take a feat) and shields are useful. If you ready (raise) your shield, you can use it and your reaction to increase AC or absorb damage, otherwise it just hangs there at your side. The PC's three actions can be used to attack, attack again (-5) and attack again (-10) or you can move, draw a weapon, cast a spell, use and item, etc. Many spells can have their range and effects increased by taking additional actions to add components while casting.
Chargen is another area where I see vast improvements over PF1. Race is now "Ancestry" and what we generally think of as racial abilities are Ancestry Feats. The half orc and half elf are specific Human ancestry traits/feats. You combine class, background and ancestry to generate the PC's attributes. This is a major departure from 1e point-buy where min-max is just too easy. I am not saying you cannot power game this chargen system, but I think it encourages thinking about who the character is role-wise and what that means in terms of stats. Feats (are fewer in number and) are tied to class and ancestry and make more sense in terms of the character's role. It also takes a feat in order to multi-class and one usually has to spend at least three levels in each class. I am not a fan of class dipping and appreciate this change.
PF2 includes fewer skills than 1e and I see that as a positive change. Gone are all the specific "knowledge" skills that so limited role-play imo and many of the other skills have been lumped together to give general skills that seem more useful. Skills can be played a number of ways at the table and I get along with the concept by hand-waving the easy uses and asking for descriptions of how the player wants their PC to go about using the skill prior to a die roll... and maybe asking the player to describe what that outcome looks like.
PF2 seems to be mechanically influenced by 5e, but Paizo has followed their own drummer. PF2 makes use of something similar to the 5e Proficiency bonus except it is more granular and called TEML which stands for Trained, Expert, Master and Legend. If a skill or weapon/armor is used untrained there is a -2 penalty. Trained means you add the PC's level, Expert adds lvl plus 1, Master lvl +2, and Legend lvl +3 to the dice roll.
The concept of Resonance limits how many uses of magic items a PC may make. Spells may be cast at higher levels enhancing their effects which can often be combined with taking more actions to add somatic, verbal or material components to the spell which also enhances it's effects. Bloodlines are more colorful and seem to count for more in-game effects such as determining if the Sorcerer uses occult, divine, arcane or primal magic. Each has its own list of spells. Spells are subject to criticals and fumbles adding unpredictability and humor.
Characters start with more hit points and there is a feeling that they may be even more powerful at 1st level than 1e Pathfinder PCs. This isn't a game like Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG where your character may start out life as a pig farmer or a shoemaker. These are competent and dangerous adventurers from the start, however the Playtest rules seem to put the brakes on some areas I personally felt were leading to overpowered and unmanageable characters, yet others may balk at the new limitations. The purpose of the beta is of course to gather feedback which will presumably influence the final product.
There is a new death mechanic which sounds (fearfully) interesting and I look forward to seeing it play out. I think it may address the "I'm down", heal, "I'm up and swinging" situation. Once a PC goes to zero hit points they may remain unconscious for a lengthy period even if healed. They may also come up with some temporary handicap...something that reminds them of having "hit the ground" as a result of a big nasty blow delivered by a powerful foe.
For the present, PF2 is a single book with plenty of room for additional material either to be supplied by the referee, or eventually by Paizo. As a beta document there are areas that currently seem unclear to me and I welcome the opportunity to do some interpreting (at least until I am told there is an "official" ruling. I am pretty sure all of this and more will eventually be addressed by the final document and the expected additional volumes to follow.
Friday, August 10, 2018
Why ODD Rules
Gary Made Good Choices
I am of the opinion that Mr. Gygax wrote his rules for a game he saw Mr. Arneson run, or something like that, and this is our beloved LBBs. I base this opinion, educated guess if you will allow the conceit, on what I have read over the years and what I have heard from online interviews with such notables as Mr. Kask and Mr. Kuntz and maybe my own intuition. Perhaps it is safer to say, the designers of the Original Game, the White Box edition, made good choices than to say Mr. Gygax made them alone. The original authors present the game as a DIY, or at least add your own content in order to finish it out, product. They give their audience - innovative wargamers - a new way to imagine their games. One that includs fantasy elements from a number of popular sources including mythology, swords & sorcery pulp fiction and the work of Professor Tolkien.
Mr. Gygax didn't want to do all of our imagining for us. He says exactly this in his "Afterword" at the end of Vol. III, The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures. He left some things unexplained and encouraged us to make it work how we would like it to be. He gave us alternatives such as the two combat systems (Chainmail and d20). And he describes or implied a milieu that has come to be called "vanilla fantasy", a term coined to describe the setting in which the game is often played. This last design decision - to not tie the game strictly to any one setting or milieu, but rather to include enough variety drawn from numerous sources such that almost any world or milieu imagined by future players could be supported by the game with just a few alterations.
To this end, the rules are assembled in a modular fashion and White Box is famous for the ease with which it can be house ruled and adapted, added to, or altered. White Box, more than any other game I know, encourages creativity on the part of those who play it. It really is/can be the game you want it to be. Its adaptability is demonstrated by the many uses the basic system mechanics of the d20 or alternative combat system has been put to over the decades by various games derived from the Original White Box edition. Perhaps only the internal combustion gasoline engine has powered more vehicles (for fun) over the years since its invention.
White Box rules as written give us a game with a definite feel. It can be a bit of a fun park milieu with all the critters available in play at once, and often placed in close proximity without much regard for a viable overall eco system, but a distinct "feel" non-the-less. It is a low-powered and dangerous milieu, more low fantasy in scope where adventurers seek treasure and personal improvement rather than high fantasy where the fate of the world hangs on the outcome of the adventure, although it can definitely handle that scenario. There is a bit of a leaning toward humor and I think this is also the influence of Mr. Gygax.
According to gamer legend, Mr. Gygax was concerned that magic users might overpower the game if not limited in some significant way, therefore we have the system often referred to as Vancian magic which limits spell casters to a selection of spells based on a limited number of memorized spells of particular power levels. In White Box all characters start out relatively weak, but the magic user wearing no armor is perhaps the weakest of all. This is considered balancing the class in terms of the White Box paradigm.
White Box is a broad spectrum fantasy game, one of inclusion rather than limits. For inspiration we are referred to the works of R.E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague DeCamp - writers who focus on heroic adventure with a nod to humor - but really we are encouraged to go beyond the sources and imagine new worlds and new adventures. I think we are also encouraged to imagine new mechanics with which to nudge our own game in the direction we want to explore with it. Include sanity if horror is your goal, or corruption if the shadow hovers near. If simulation or realism is your goal, replace some of the more abstract elements of the game with something that seem more realistic to you.
I frequently grab ideas from the narrative games I enjoy reading and bring them to the White Box table. Rather than describe some aspect of the milieu, I frequently ask the players what that looks like, drawing on their creative imagination and sharing some of the narrative control of our collaborative story. I will ask them to describe how they take out a bad guy or to tell me one thing which happens along the journey to town?
Borrowing from the popularity of a certain space opera narrative dice system, I will sometimes roll a d6 as a way of adding boons and complications as I describe the outcome of a player's dice roll. A d6 roll of 1-2 means something good in addition to the success or failure of the PC's roll. A 3-4 on the d6 is neutral and a 5-6 means some some complication comes about in addition to their success or failure. Use of a similar d6 roll can leverage advantage or disadvantage to a situation or argument, or determine the degree of success or failure. More often than not, I prefer to run the White Box Alternative Combat system as written (without initiative) because I find it unequaled in providing a fast and furious resolution which seems in keeping with my mental concept of the nature of hand-to-hand combat...fast, furious and often deadly!
I am of the opinion that Mr. Gygax wrote his rules for a game he saw Mr. Arneson run, or something like that, and this is our beloved LBBs. I base this opinion, educated guess if you will allow the conceit, on what I have read over the years and what I have heard from online interviews with such notables as Mr. Kask and Mr. Kuntz and maybe my own intuition. Perhaps it is safer to say, the designers of the Original Game, the White Box edition, made good choices than to say Mr. Gygax made them alone. The original authors present the game as a DIY, or at least add your own content in order to finish it out, product. They give their audience - innovative wargamers - a new way to imagine their games. One that includs fantasy elements from a number of popular sources including mythology, swords & sorcery pulp fiction and the work of Professor Tolkien.
Mr. Gygax didn't want to do all of our imagining for us. He says exactly this in his "Afterword" at the end of Vol. III, The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures. He left some things unexplained and encouraged us to make it work how we would like it to be. He gave us alternatives such as the two combat systems (Chainmail and d20). And he describes or implied a milieu that has come to be called "vanilla fantasy", a term coined to describe the setting in which the game is often played. This last design decision - to not tie the game strictly to any one setting or milieu, but rather to include enough variety drawn from numerous sources such that almost any world or milieu imagined by future players could be supported by the game with just a few alterations.
To this end, the rules are assembled in a modular fashion and White Box is famous for the ease with which it can be house ruled and adapted, added to, or altered. White Box, more than any other game I know, encourages creativity on the part of those who play it. It really is/can be the game you want it to be. Its adaptability is demonstrated by the many uses the basic system mechanics of the d20 or alternative combat system has been put to over the decades by various games derived from the Original White Box edition. Perhaps only the internal combustion gasoline engine has powered more vehicles (for fun) over the years since its invention.
White Box rules as written give us a game with a definite feel. It can be a bit of a fun park milieu with all the critters available in play at once, and often placed in close proximity without much regard for a viable overall eco system, but a distinct "feel" non-the-less. It is a low-powered and dangerous milieu, more low fantasy in scope where adventurers seek treasure and personal improvement rather than high fantasy where the fate of the world hangs on the outcome of the adventure, although it can definitely handle that scenario. There is a bit of a leaning toward humor and I think this is also the influence of Mr. Gygax.
According to gamer legend, Mr. Gygax was concerned that magic users might overpower the game if not limited in some significant way, therefore we have the system often referred to as Vancian magic which limits spell casters to a selection of spells based on a limited number of memorized spells of particular power levels. In White Box all characters start out relatively weak, but the magic user wearing no armor is perhaps the weakest of all. This is considered balancing the class in terms of the White Box paradigm.
White Box is a broad spectrum fantasy game, one of inclusion rather than limits. For inspiration we are referred to the works of R.E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague DeCamp - writers who focus on heroic adventure with a nod to humor - but really we are encouraged to go beyond the sources and imagine new worlds and new adventures. I think we are also encouraged to imagine new mechanics with which to nudge our own game in the direction we want to explore with it. Include sanity if horror is your goal, or corruption if the shadow hovers near. If simulation or realism is your goal, replace some of the more abstract elements of the game with something that seem more realistic to you.
I frequently grab ideas from the narrative games I enjoy reading and bring them to the White Box table. Rather than describe some aspect of the milieu, I frequently ask the players what that looks like, drawing on their creative imagination and sharing some of the narrative control of our collaborative story. I will ask them to describe how they take out a bad guy or to tell me one thing which happens along the journey to town?
Borrowing from the popularity of a certain space opera narrative dice system, I will sometimes roll a d6 as a way of adding boons and complications as I describe the outcome of a player's dice roll. A d6 roll of 1-2 means something good in addition to the success or failure of the PC's roll. A 3-4 on the d6 is neutral and a 5-6 means some some complication comes about in addition to their success or failure. Use of a similar d6 roll can leverage advantage or disadvantage to a situation or argument, or determine the degree of success or failure. More often than not, I prefer to run the White Box Alternative Combat system as written (without initiative) because I find it unequaled in providing a fast and furious resolution which seems in keeping with my mental concept of the nature of hand-to-hand combat...fast, furious and often deadly!
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
GenCon 2018
Back at my regular routine today after spending yesterday recuperating from a lack of sleep and a stimulus overload (i.e. too much fun) at GenCon. Once again feeling truly blessed by the gaming luck gods to live just off I-70 between Indianapolis, site of GenCon, and Columbus, site of Origins. This year I was prepared for the badge sell-out and did my registering early. My badge and event tickets were mailed to me well ahead of the con date and it all went very smoothly with no standing in line. The City of Indianapolis and INDOT got their road repairs all finished before the con started so there were no traveling issues.
GenCon is about games and I always try to play as many as possible. Some years I spend a lot of time in the exhibitor hall doing game demonstrations and this is a major way I discover new games and find out what games are most interesting to me, but I have not tried and are a good fit for me and my friends. This year I had purchased tickets to 10 events and therefore had only a brief time in the exhibitor hall doing only one demo. Another highlight of the exhibitor hall is meeting and talking with game designers and publishers. This year I got to exchange a few words with Greg Stafford, father of Glorantha and Runequest and King Arthur Pendragon and founder of The Chaosium game company.
As usual, the events included a nice selection of role-playing games this year and I spent most of my time with character sheet and dice playing as many as I could fit into the long weekend. Goodman Games had a room devoted to their RPGs and I played in seven of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG sessions. DCCRPG is a nice old school style game making use of modern mechanics and keeps close to the Appendix N spirit of fantasy. All the games I played using DCCRPG were good games.
Chaosium games have played a major role in my personal hobby history and remain among my favorites. This GenCon I picked up the newly printed RuneQuest 4e hardcover at the Chaosium booth and played a 4-hour session using the newly released rules. I like the changes in the RQG system which includes increasing the PC's relationship with the runes for which the game is named. Chaosium also ran Call of Cthulhu sessions and I played in a very interesting cowboy adventure using some of the Pulp Cthulhu modifications to the 7e game. I would rank it as my favorite game I played at Gencon 2018.
Shopping took a back seat this year as I didn't have the time to spend too many hours in the exhibitor hall. I did pick up some DCCRPG products from Goodman Games, print copies of For Coin and Blood and Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells, the new RuneQuest Glorantha and ENnie Winner Frostbitten and Mutilated, Pendragon 5.2 and a hardcover print of The Great Pendragon Campaign (my old softcover is looking a bit used these days).
I wrapped up my can experience Sunday afternoon with a session using Holmes Bluebook Basic. The referee, John, had us roll PCs 3d6 down the line and ran our 3rd level characters through an old Judges Guild, Treasure Maps adventure authored by Paul (Jennell) Jaquays. I thought the referee did an excellent job running Holmes and Jaquays is one of my favorite adventure mod writers of all time. The table got into the old school spirit of gaming and this session is a close competitor for my distinction as my favorite of the con.
Once again I found all the people I gamed with this year were great, the referees all very talented at their craft and well prepared and the Indianapolis Convention Center was very comfortable and friendly. GenCon is huge and I only accessed a very small portion of it. There are card games, miniatures games, boardgames and many other roleplaying games being run that I never see. I suppose like most gamers, I seek out what is of most interest to me personally and that is how I spend my limited time. I am already looking forward to next year.
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