Medieval Authentic Roleplaying

An RPG World Lit Only By Fire
As anyone who regularly reads this blog knows, I am enthusiastic about the OSR (Old School Renaissance) style play and games. The first generation OSR saw publication of the retro-clone rule sets, the big three being OSRIC (for Advanced 1e), Labyrinth Lord (for B/X) and Swords & Wizardry (for ODD), and the play aids. modules and settings published using these and the open license. In keeping with the old school spirit, the OSR hobby supports and encourages a do-it-yourself approach. The resulting creative content inspired by interest in the old school RPGs and the ease with which self publishing can be done today has resulted in an explosion of high quality OSR products. Recent contributions include games that offer a fresh take on role-playing adventure games written with the old school style of rules and game-play in mind. One of those is Dragon & Lion by RPGPundit.
Medieval Authentic in Lion & Dragon refers to an emphasis on role-playing in a fictional feudal society based on a real setting, that of England during the middle ages. Chivalry, knighthood, feudal obligation and a powerful monotheistic church are central themes around which play revolves. The monotheistic church structure parallels that of the medieval Roman Christian Church, but the author changes the name and deity for some reason. 
Lion & Dragon is not the first RPG to attempt at producing a game with a more authentic medieval feel; Chivalry & Sorcery sets this goal for itself starting around 1977. Fantasy Wargaming edited by Bruce Galloway and published by Patrick Stephens Limited in 1981 presents a detailed game system for role-play that draws heavily on wargaming and medieval history including medieval concepts of magic.

Dark Albion, also by RPGPundit, can be used as a setting for Lion & Dragon or with another OSR style game system. Like Lion & Dragon, Dark Albion draws heavily upon historic England for inspiration. Set in a fictional version of the War of the Roses, Dark Albion adds fantastical elements such as sorcery, clerical miracles and supernatural monsters to a setting ripe with the division and conflict of the civil war fought between the houses of York and Lancaster.
Lion & Dragon and Dark Albion are inspired by real events of England's past, but take considerable liberties with the history. The most glaring to me is the substitution of the worship of the Sun for the Roman Christian Church. Role-playing in a setting that resembles history, but clearly isn't avoids some of the potential issues to be encountered with a campaign set during an historic period. For starters, the fantasy version of history can differ in whatever areas the author/referee would like to change. If the bigotry of the period is problematic, change history by eliminating that fact. Any inconsistencies your in-game setting has with historic fact can be explained away by saying, "It's very much like the way it was, but different in some ways." How well this works probably depends on the willingness of your audience to suspend disbelief. In my experience, this only works well for periods of history that I personally have very little knowledge about. If it is documented and known and yet ignored, I am looking for an exit from the game. So my advice is don't change history, rather find an unexplained event or even better, some as yet untold story for the players to discover and possibly reveal.

This image of an under inspiring cover belies the quality of what lies within HarnMaster Gold. As a medieval authentic role-playing experience, HarnMaster in all its editions has few peers. Logic and real world experience inspires both the setting of Harn and the rule system designed for use with it. Harn/HarnMaster has an authenticity about its setting that is both detailed and extensive. Harn is a low magic world in the sense that magic users are rare and spell effects are often subtle. The existence of fantastic beings, dimensional travel and gods which take an active part in the world all suggest Harn and HarnMaster are quite magical, however. There are times when this approach, a magical world where characters command very little of the magic, is greatly appealing to me. Such a setting seems authentic to me in much the same way our own world contains many wondrous mysteries, despite our scientific discoveries.
The wonder of a setting is often strongest when players cannot command powerful world shaping magics, yet experience places of mystery and power. This basis is seen in the work of many of the classic fantasy authors whose protagonists are often folks like us who have been thrown into mysterious and alien settings. We as readers discover these mysteries alongside the protagonist. Reading is passive entertainment, but through the magic of role-playing we can become active participants in our entertainment, and yet our characters need not have the power to alter "reality" in order to play a significant role in our fictional events.
Authentic role-play, whether medieval, modern or otherwise in setting is more about being focused on the plausible, tangible and believable than the outrageously powerful. It is subtle and grounded in a world which we recognize, one that in many ways is much like our own, yet differs in a significant way. Medieval authentic differs primarily in societal ways, a feudal society being much different from our own, so different in facts as to be challenging enough to role-play convincingly. Adding in a bit of magic and a dash of the supernatural and we are probably pushing the limits of verisimilitude. I think this is one reason why so many games by-pass the medieval authentic and settle for a game set in a modern society, but one where people wear medieval fashions. There are just so many balls the juggler can keep in motion at once.

Dungeon World

Powered by the Apocalypse
Perspective! Sometimes reading or listening to a different perspective brings a thing into focus, sharpens our understanding and deepens our appreciation of something that has been with us so long that we just take it for granted that we understand all there is to know about it. I call this unsettling occurrence a nice surprise. Independent game publishers like The Burning Wheel offer that unique experience by taking the most well known RPG system in the hobby to the next unexpected level. They go beyond what we take for granted and teach us something new about a game we thought we fully understood.
Dungeon World is just such a game. Written by Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel, Dungeon World  uses "Powered by the Apocalypse" mechanics called "Moves" and "Fronts" (and other system jargon), but that isn't what this post is about, rather I am focusing on how Dungeon World (DW) informs us about the Original RPG that inspired DW. Games like DW (and Torchbearer also by The Burning Wheel) have been called "love letters" and I think there is some merit to this description, but DW goes beyond praise and affection for the original and re-frames my thinking about it. Simply put, DW helps me better understand the Original Game.
Reading the character descriptions in DW, the classic archetypes of the class system are brought clearly into focus. Admittedly, DW looks at each class and race from a singular perspective in order to better frame the archetype, but I find it a useful and entertaining exercise.
Storyteller, poet, songwriter and charmer, the bard is both adventurer and recorder of heroic deeds. Armed with your father's mandolin, fancy clothes and a hidden dagger...DW paints a picture of the iconic bard. In contrast, BW depicts the druid as a wanderer, a spirit warrior draped in skins who rejects civilization and its gods in order to be closer to a greater power, that of nature itself. A shape-shifter with the ability to assume animal form and to speak with spirits, the adventuring druid assumes assumes a shepherd's role with respect to the party. An armored war machine and templar of the good, the paladin guides the party using gifts of righteousness and virtue because hell awaits.
Names, Look and Stats shape each individual character in DW. Alignment, Gear and Bonds round out the character concept. DW zones in on the unique elements that individualize each character and by doing so DW gives each player a handle on how to conceive of and role-play their character.
The GM section describes the job of planning and running the game and offers some practical and to-the-point advice such as... Portray a fantastic world, describe the situation, provide opportunities for heroic adventure and play to find out what happens. Regarding referee maps, leave blank spaces so that you may add things that arise during play. Talk to the characters, name your NPCs and play your monsters as if they are real creatures with sensible motives and individual personalities. Be a fan of the players' characters, but present riches at a price. Let them earn it.
The ability to bring key elements of play, those very elements so very common to the game we love and adore, is where DW and systems like it, really shine. Reading DW improves my understanding of "the game" and I believe, helps make me a better player.

Powers & Perils Partial Success

Deserves A Second Look
Recently I have been getting reacquainted with one of my favorite out-of-print FRPGs, the highly detailed Powers & Perils, and once again I am impressed with finding aspects of the game that are ahead of its time and generally useful as a borrowed mechanic for play using other systems. Powers & Perils is a game introduced in 1983 by the Avalon Hill Game Company alongside RuneQuest 3rd Edition and Lords of Creation in an effort to leverage some of the growing popularity of fantasy role-play games. Powers & Perils is written by Richard Snider who was involved with David Arneson during the Blackmoor days and together with Mr. Arneson designed the previous FRPG Adventures in Fantasy (1978).
Avalon Hill Powers & Perils core rules consist of a boxed set of five paperback volumes. They are titled The Character Book (44 pages), The Combat and Magic Book (52 pages), The Creature Book (60 pages), The Book of Human Encounters and Treasures (52 pages), and County Modara (24 pages). A version 2 of P&P (in a single 471 page volume) and its setting Perilous Lands (544 pages) is available digitally and P&P is still a good game. Once described as over priced and complex (some math required) back in the day, I currently find P&P neither. P&P v2 is a free download and its mechanics do not seem complex by today's standards. The popular RPGs GURPS and Champions/Hero System  both involve more math during character generation than P&P.
Powers & Perils (P&P) is a roll under d100 system. Skill and combat rolls in P&P are resolved using a system that accounts for "partial success", that is rolling over the target number, but being within 21% points over is considered a partial success allowing for various in-game effects which are less than a total success but greater than a total failure. The mechanics of many d100 systems can benefit from use of such an interpretation of the dice. Recent editions of Warhammer Fantasy Roll Play (4e) and Call of Cthulhu (7e) both make use of a similar philosophy. WFRP 4e uses success levels and CoC 7e refers to regular success, hard success and extreme success.
A partial skill roll success is also possible and earns experience points for the character. Combat in P&P uses a matrix comparing Offensive Combat Value (OCV) to Defensive Combat Value, (DCV) the difference producing a value which is translated into a percentile skill test in which you roll equal to or under the target number for success. A partial success in combat results in a shield hit, provided the target has one. Use of an offensive and defensive value computed during chargen is used in Hero System and Rolemaster games and although it involves a bit of subtraction, it can add to the feeling of realism in my experience.
Mr. Snider has an approach to game settings and milieu which I especially like. Even as far back as that described in Adventures in Fantasy, I found his implied setting captivating. Alignment in P&P is an exceptional concept in gaming. Drawing on the conflict between the forces of Law and Chaos that is found in White Box P&P adds additional layers of conflict consisting of the agendas of several elder races and other worldly beings. Thus alignment in the Perilous Lands is which side are you fighting for as well as a determinate of behavioral attitudes and perhaps a moral compass.
The surface and underworld encounter tables found in Powers & Perils creature book are quite good (some of the best I have seen) and are useful both as an example and as is in many settings. The implied setting of Powers & Perils (The Perilous Lands) involves three distinct "planes", the middle world which is similar to our own Earth in climate, physics and calendar, the lower world of darkness and faerie and the upper world of angels and heavenly creatures.  Mr. Snider's take on dwarves, elves and faerie in general gives them a strange and exotic personality very distinct from humans which I find has its own appeal. The middle world contains many connections to the underworld and over world which facilitates "invasions" of nonhuman creatures and exploration/adventuring by player characters who pass through the "portals". A typical "portal" might be a forest glen or cave which "transports" those of the middle world who enter it to the  lower world of dark faerie.
Powers & Perils is a game that impresses me each time I spend time with it. It has a system and setting which have influenced my attitudes and preferences. I have frequently drawn upon its material for use in other games and settings and found many of the borrowed ideas taken from the P&P boxed set to be quite satisfying in play. I am wondering why I haven't done more with P&P than read the system materials, borrow from them and roll up a few characters?

Powered by Labyrinth Lord

Return to the Underworld
First published in 2007, early on in the Old School movement, Labyrinth Lord by Goblinoid Games is a faithful clone of the popular B/X system combing material that was split into two books in the originals (levels 1-3 as covered in Basic with levels 4-14 as covered in Expert). B/X was TSR's second take on the Basic Rules and was the work of editor Tom Moldvay. It was published in 1981, three years after the J. Eric Holmes version of Basic, and was soon followed by the Expert Rules edited by David Cook with Steve Marsh. B/X continued the design philosophy of the Original Edition and is considered by many to hit the sweet spot in terms of usability. B/X was well supported with some very good Basic and Expert modules and remains a fan favorite version of the game. Using the SRD and OGL Labyrinth Lord provides a means of publishing new materials without copyright infringement and there are a number of good supplements and modules written by LL author Daniel Proctor and others.

In 2008 Mr. Proctor dialed back the clock to 1974 and gave us Original Edition Characters for use with Labyrinth Lord. Original Edition Characters presents options that reproduce a style of game that resembles the Original Edition in terms of ability score bonuses and prime requisites, and limiting players to the original three classes, Clerics, Magic Users and Fighting Men, but also takes some departures from White Box. Labyrinth Lord treats dwarves, elves and halflings as their own class and this remains so in Original Edition Characters. Elves are treated as choosing to act as a Magic User or Fighting Man in any particular adventure in amanner similar to one interpretation of White Box elves. The spell lists also differ from that found in the three Little Brown Books. For example Magic Missile, a spell added in Supplement I Greyhawk, is included in Original Edition Characters. Original Edition Characters uses variable hit dice, d8 for Fighting Men, d6 for Clerics and Magic Users, which differs from the White Box which uses d6 rolls for determining hit points and from Supplement I which introduces variable hit dice, but uses a d4 for the Magic User class. Combat is unchanged from Labyrinth Lord.

Daniel Proctor took Labyrinth Lord a step further in 2010 with his Advanced Edition Companion which adds some of the classes, races, monsters and treasures found in the first edition Advanced Game to the Labyrinth Lord line. Armed with Labyrinth Lord and the Advanced Edition Companion gamers and developers have an in print open license system to use. Labyrinth Lord seems well received and there are a number of products written with it in mind. In 2018 Mr. Proctor combined the Labyrinth Lord and Advanced Edition Companion under a single cover titled Advanced Labyrinth Lord.

Barrowmaze Complete is a Labyrinth Lord compatible megadungeon by Greg Gillespie. By extension, products designed using Labyrinth Lord mechanics can easily be used with most old school renaissance systems as they generally share many common themes. One will notice both the Labyrinth Lord and OSR labels can be found on the cover of Barrowmaze Complete and other products which indicate they are written to be used with those games.

The Forbidden Caverns of Archaia is a second megadungeon also compatible with Labyrinth Lord and also written by Greg Gillespie. The megadungeon format dates back to the original campaigns of the authors of the Original Role-Playing Game, the White Box. Consisting of multiple levels, each becoming more challenging as they go deeper and often organized around a theme, the megadungeon forms the basis for an entire campaign of extended play, often seeing the rise to power of the players' characters as they adventure in the depth of the underground, defeating monsters, foiling sinister plots and liberating lost treasures. B/X, and by extension Labyrinth Lord, is considered well suited to the dungeon based adventure.

A game as popular as Labyrinth Lord is able to spin off many associated products including its own Referee Screen. The practice of using a referee screen dates back to the earliest days of the hobby, although the original game didn't come with one (a pamphlet of charts and tables was included instead) and it was several years before TSR issued an "official" version of the referee screen. The barrier is to screen the referee's maps and notes from the players' view so as to not prematurely reveal surprises the referee may have planned. Many referees roll dice behind the screen, but as I have stated previously, I see no good reason to do this. (Just turn the map over or close the book when not consulting it.) As a matter of preference, I seldom set a screen up to shield anything from view, although I do find the information contained on many screens to be of use as a quick reference to consult during the game.
Labyrinth Lord, together with OSRIC and Swords & Wizardry ushered in the Old School Renaissance by providing the hobby with a way to produce and market new material written for use with older out-of-print editions of the Worlds Most Popular Role-Playing Game. I could say it/they powered a revolution in the game industry. Certainly the hobby has been impacted as new product became available and there has been renewed interest among older grognards and new gamers who are discovering the older editions for the first time through the OSR. Wizbros has re-released a large number of the older editions and play aids in digital and print formats and almost certainly has incorporated OSR elements into the 5th Edition released in 2014. Today, interest remains strong in the games released during the early days of the hobby and there is perhaps more people today interested in the games than ever before as evidenced by the online presence and availability of product offerings.

Advanced Rules Cloning

OSR Beginning and Beyond
As I understand it, the Old School Renaissance is the outgrowth of various online forum discussions. One of the first (maybe the actual first?) publication to come out of this revival/interest in the older game(s) is OSRIC (Old School Reference and Index Compilation) created by Stuart Marshall and Matthew Finch in 2006 under the Open Gaming License (OGL) using a System Reference Document (SRD). The stated purpose of OSRIC, and by extension many OSR retro-clones, is to allow publishers to produce new material for the Advanced Game (also compatible with Basic and White Box as well). The print on demand services allow for hard copies of OSRIC to be purchased for use at the table as well as OSRIC being available in its original digital format.

OSRIC, now in its second edition, cleans up and reorganizes the Advanced system and in some ways is a more usable product than the original. OSRIC drops some of the complicating rule bits that most in the hobby, myself included, exclude from play such as the weapon verses armor class matrix. If I am asked about someone new getting into the Advanced Game, I shall say, go get OSRIC for use at the table, but read the original for that period "Gygaxian" feel. Mr. Gygax put a lot of himself into the original Advanced Edition volumes (especially the DM Guide) and his writing voice should be experienced by any serious student of the game.

Soon after the publication of OSRIC and retro-clones of Basic, White Box, Holmes and the other originals, several OSR enthusiasts reinterpreted the older games, adding new ideas and produced essentially new games based on the original system concepts. Thus we now have what may be called the second generation OSR games. Joseph Bloch of BRW Games has designed his version of Advanced beyond 1e. Adventures Dark & Deep is his interpretation of what a second edition of Advanced might have looked like had Gary Gygax written 2e (or had more influence on it). Drawing from articles, subsequent games written by Mr. Gygax after he left TSR, the online postings of Mr. Gygax, and Mr. Gygax's Unearthed Arcana (TSR), Adventures Dark & Deep is based on, and perhaps reflects much of, the post 1e thinking of the original Advanced game author. Additional character classes (heavily influenced by UA), spells, monsters and treasures and some streamlining of the rules is added, all whilst retaining the feel of the first edition. Therefore Adventures Dark & Deep gives the OSR audience a nice "what if" product that takes the game beyond 1e. I find Adventures Dark & Deep much to my liking and the excellent Castle of the Mad Archmage mega dungeon is quite compelling. I have yet to run Adventures Dark & Deep, but I hope to do so someday...soon!

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, published by North Wind Adventures, is an awesome game based on the 1e system, but with an emphasis on a more swords & sorcery feel. Written by Jeff Talanian who worked alongside Mr. Gygax in his later years on such projects as Castle Zagyg, Astonishing Swordsmen is set in Mr. Talanian's Hyperborea setting (likely named after a fictional setting of author Clark Aston Smith) which strikes me as one of the most engaging published settings I have had the good fortune to encounter. Hyperborea and the Astonishing Swordsmen rules are both rich in a swords & sorcery tone, one which I have enjoyed since first discovering R.E. Howard's Conan stories (my reading of Clark Ashton Smith came later). I have not had the pleasure of playing at Mr. Talanian's table (although I understand he runs a number of convention sessions, so maybe someday?), but I have enjoyed several Astonishing Swordsmen convention games set in his setting of Hyperborea and I have refereed a short campaign of my own in Hyperborea, finding it engaging and fun to run.

Goodman Games produces some of the best adventure modules written to date under the marketing slogan, "first edition feel!" and in 2012 they added their own entry into the OSR rules system field. The Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, written by company owner Joseph Goodman, borrows concepts from older systems such as race-as-class and also from newer systems such as the ascending AC, fortitude, reflex and willpower saves, and combines them with new system material inspired by Mr. Goodman's extensive research into Appendix N (DM Guige 1e) to create a modern masterpiece. The DCC game is well supported both by the publisher and by several third party entities and has a unique, fun flavor that is fresh and challenging (in a good way). In the last two years I have played in, and refereed, more DCCRPG sessions than those of any other system. That should give you, dear reader, a good indication of my positive feelings for this game.

Hit Points Reconsidered

Damage and Health...and Courage and Resolve?
What do Hit Points represent? We have been asking that question since the earliest days of the hobby. I have recently heard Tim Kask give his explanation on his YouTube channel, The Curmudgeon in the Cellar. Mr. Kask indicates that hit points represent the ability to avoid a killing blow. The loss of hit points represents tricks that work once, but that seldom work twice, special defensive moves, and other advantages learned and perfected through experience, all of which can be used up during encounters. According to Mr. Kask, only the last bit of damage that puts the PC down actually damages the body of the character. Monsters may be different and damage to a large monster may mean actually slicing them up.
I have typically narrate various damage effects such as the attack being turned aside by armor or producing only a minor scratch, etc. Over the decades, I have split hit points into body points and fatigue points, fatigue increases with experience and is lost first, unless a critical hit is scored. I am now thinking of hit points in a slightly different way. Luck, skill, mojo, karma, they all may play a part in hit points, all of which improve as the character advances in levels making the adventurer harder to kill. I am also thinking hit points represent a morale factor - faith in one's deity, self confidence, determination and a feeling of being on the right track. Certainly PC fatigue factors in as well. Each loss of hit points brings the adventurer closer to their doom!
The reverse of damage is healing or recovery of lost hit points. What constitutes healing? I think we need a broad definition, one that will encompass recovery of fatigue, return of the "mojo" and improving spirits/morale as well as the healing of bruises and wounds. Regaining the will and energy to go back into danger can constitute a major portion of either natural hit point recovery or magical "healing". Regardless of how we think of hit points, they work pretty well in the game. It has taken some years of consideration, but I think I am finally satisfied with what hit points are all about.

More from Supplement I

Additions and Changes
Supplement I, Greyhawk introduces a number of new concepts to the Original Edition of the World's First Role-Playing Game published by TSR. As the first supplement to the popular game, Greyhawk sets the stage for the supplements to come. Named for the Greyhawk Castle campaign run by Original Edition co-author Gary Gygax with Rob Kuntz it is assumed to contain rules, character classes, monsters and treasure drawn from that campaign and demonstrates how each campaign may incorporate additions and changes to give it its own unique tone and feel.
The additions and changes listed in Supplement I, Greyhawk include one new class, Thieves and one new sub-class of fighters, the Paladin. Also included are the following:
Determination of abilities - Supplement I increases the importance of higher ability scores by attaching more advantages to each high score (except wisdom). The original three Little Brown Books have very few bonuses tied to ability scores, a high dexterity +1 to hit with missile weapons, a high constitution +1 hit point per hit die and the charisma bonuses for number of henchmen and loyalty. The advantage of a high ability score in White Box is primarily tied to the primary attribute and earning additional experience.
Alternate hit dice - Supplement I adds the variable hit dice concept to character class. Each character class rolls a different type of die for their hit points under Greyhawk's additional rule (MU & Thieves = d4, Ftr = d8, Clerics = d6). All characters use a d6 for hit dice in White Box.
Variable damage - Each weapon is given a separate damage range determined by rolling one or more dice. Damage is listed for hitting small and medium creatures with a separate column for damaging larger creatures. In White Box, all weapons from (dagger to two handed sword) deal one d6 of damage. Supplement I also includes a to hit adjustment table allowing some weapons advantage or disadvantage in terms of a plus or minus to hit verses each armor type/class. Along with variable weapon damage, Supplement I introduces variable damage for different monsters.
New spells - Supplement I introduces a number of new spells for the existing magic user and cleric lists and extends the magic user spells to include 7th, 8th and 9th level spells. The cleric spell lists  advance to include 6th and 7th level spells.
New monsters and treasures/ new magic items are among the additions found in Supplement I, some of which such as the beholder and the deck of many things have become iconic staples of the brand. Greyhawk ends with a list of tricks and traps for the referee to spring on dungeon delving adventurers.
Depending on your perspective, Supplement I either completes the Original Game rules or changes them. As a huge fan of the original White Box, I tend to pick sparingly from Supplement I for most of my games. The real value of Supplement I in my eyes is the fact that it shows us how the Original Edition can be added to, altered and shaped to give us a game more in keeping with our own personal world vision - tools to tell the stories we want to explore.