Here we are at the end of 2023. How was it for gaming for me?
Running Dungeon Fantasy
Due to a TPK, this year was pretty odd for me - I actually got to play in a DF Felltower adjacent campaign GMed by one of my regular players, Vic.
So I GMed less sessions overall, but the net amount of DF Felltower-connected play wasn't as low as this seems. 2022 featured only 13 sessions for comparison to me GMing 12 this year - about one every 4 weeks.
Session 178, Brotherhood Complex 2 - Iron Knights
Session 179, Brotherhood Complex 3, Part I
Session 180, Brotherhood Complex 3 - Part II
Session 181, Brotherhood Complex 4, Part I
Session 182, Brotherhood Complex 4, Part II - Demon Grunts & Torturers
Session 183, Brotherhood Complex 5 - Gnolls (Part I)
Session 184, Brotherhood Complex 5 - Gnolls (Part II)
Session 185, Felltower 125 - Return to Felltower
Session 186, Felltower 125 - Return to Felltower Part II - Gnolls & A Level Too Far?
Session 187, Felltower 125 - Fighting the Werewolves
Session 188, Felltower 126 - Werewolf Loot & Crystal Gazing
Session 189, Felltower 127 - Quick Delve
It was great getting back to Felltower.
We added a couple of players, though - Doug and Kevin joined us. We didn't really lose anyone although Galen's player Mike only played in a session or two. Doug and Kevin have been excellent additions and have added a different approach to delving and character generation.
The Forge has been excellent, and Foundry is getting better and better. Still odd sometimes, and still lots of little issues, but overall I feel much more comfortable with it.
Playing RPGs
With our TPK in Session 184, caused by Ye Olde Let's Camp in This Dead End Tactic, we needed to reboot the party again. I didn't want to create yet another starting area, and Felltower isn't a great place for newbies anymore, after endless bottom feeding by high point guys cleaned out anything that wasn't a rat, an ooze, or a gargoyle from the upper levels. So Vic offered to run some games . . . and I suggested we port the characters from there back to Felltower.
We did that. It was a good experience - I'd never co-GMed anything like that before.
I played most of the sessions, missing only one because I didn't want to stay up all night in Japan to game from there.
Felltower Adjacent - Session 1
Felltower Adjacent - Session 2
Felltower Adjacent - Session 3
Felltower Adjacent - Session 5 - Scaring & Murdering Hobgoblins
Felltower Adjacent Session 6 - Traps & Temples of Orcus
There were 6 sessions and I played 5 of them, as you can see above. All in all, then, there were 18 sessions of Felltower-connected games run in 2023, and I played only 17 of them despite it being the campaign I initiated. Heh. Goes with my "our game" idea - Felltower is "mine" and I didn't even play all the sessions.*
AD&D
Another year with no AD&D. I expect this coming one will be the same, although I'm going to try otherwise. I expect the ship has sailed and no one wants to play AD&D anymore. I'm the only one who mentions it.
Other Games & Gaming
I was able to play some other games this year:
Board Games:
Fire in the Lake - simply beautiful, and amazing to play. Every turn feels like a dilemma.
Panzer Blitz - fun, but I'd actually rather play early-war scenarios, like 41-42.
Video games:
GTA 3: Vice City
Borderlands 2 (not so much of it, this year, but I still fired it up a few times)
Pathfinder: Kingmaker (running both my evil monk, and a Lawful Good Paladin aimed at getting the "best" ending)
Planescape: Torment enhanced edition (beautiful, and such a good game)
Fantasy General (almost finished it)
War in the East (played a couple of short scenarios)
I bought, but haven't yet played, Grand Tactician: The American Civil War.
Writing
I started work on a big project with Doug Cole, but SJG ended up putting it on hold for a while. Oh well.
I wrote a few other little things but without Pyramid, they don't have a home, but I like them too much to not try to find a way to turn them into a profit.
Overall, not a bad year in gaming. I'd like to get to 20+ sessions in 2024.
* I still shake my head over the hostile reaction I got in the comments on that one.
Sunday, December 31, 2023
Saturday, December 30, 2023
DF Session 189 - More Notes
So the PCs had a goal today - kill a stone bull and a chimera. They managed to blunder into some crushrooms and maul one, wound a few more, and then retreat and head home.
The PCs had a good point - fighting an open-field monster (stone bull) and a flying monster with ranged attacks (chimera) outdoors is probably not ideal. Sneaking up on them out of the dark is probably better. The cost, though, for doing so, was well demonstrated in the session.
The problem with going through the dungeon include:
- it takes time. Game time and in-game time. There is no "fast forward" through the dungeon like we do for overland.
- there is no guarantee that you won't get into additional fights.
- there are distractions.
- there are hazards.
All came up today.
It took 2 hours to get to the crushrooms in the real world (10 am to 12 noon), that long or a bit more in actual in-game time delving.
They got into an additional fight which almost certainly alerted their target monsters.
They got distracted by the scrying room, briefly, and by the dead ogres, briefly.
They got stuck in a half-bent portcullis, fell in pits, fell down stairs, and used up FP on repeated attempts to force doors.
It also took some time as they fought the crushrooms in an area I didn't have set up for a battle map, so I had to pause the game for a few minutes and hurriedly draw walls on a scan of the map zoomed in and uploaded. I did it fast - I've gotten good at it over time - but geez, I had the other one ready to go. Foolish me, when they said they'd just go right there from the outside and attack the monsters, I believed them. I didn't prepare for the alternative.
Ironically, the problem with fighting flying monsters outdoors is that you can't melee them effectively . . . yet they have a scout, and the spell Flight. They also have Walk on Air and missile spells, so the ground-bound monster is likely out of luck against anyone who doesn't choose to fight it directly. I feel like they outsmarted themselves - convinced themselves that sneaking up was so valuable that they spent the whole session on it. The crushrooms are still intact, too, which is likely an obstacle to future delves in either direction.
Perfect Illusion says it fools all senses except Touch. Just FYI, I rule that to mean hearing, vision, and even smell - but not touch and therefore not taste (since you can't taste without touch.) I don't take it to mean "all possible senses." In DF, there are many ways to sense and target - the normal senses, plus various forms of Detect, Vibration Sense, and magic come to mind.
Someone wondered why no one filled the pit at the entrance full of cement. Probably because it's 60 x 20 x 30 feet. 36,000 cubic feet. You'd need 1333.33 cubic yards of fill. Create Earth isn't permanent.
Someone also wanted to use Shape Earth to shape metal. No, sorry, it doesn't do that - earth and stone, but not metal. There is a GURPS Magic college with metal spells which I very specifically do not use in Felltower.
The PCs had a good point - fighting an open-field monster (stone bull) and a flying monster with ranged attacks (chimera) outdoors is probably not ideal. Sneaking up on them out of the dark is probably better. The cost, though, for doing so, was well demonstrated in the session.
The problem with going through the dungeon include:
- it takes time. Game time and in-game time. There is no "fast forward" through the dungeon like we do for overland.
- there is no guarantee that you won't get into additional fights.
- there are distractions.
- there are hazards.
All came up today.
It took 2 hours to get to the crushrooms in the real world (10 am to 12 noon), that long or a bit more in actual in-game time delving.
They got into an additional fight which almost certainly alerted their target monsters.
They got distracted by the scrying room, briefly, and by the dead ogres, briefly.
They got stuck in a half-bent portcullis, fell in pits, fell down stairs, and used up FP on repeated attempts to force doors.
It also took some time as they fought the crushrooms in an area I didn't have set up for a battle map, so I had to pause the game for a few minutes and hurriedly draw walls on a scan of the map zoomed in and uploaded. I did it fast - I've gotten good at it over time - but geez, I had the other one ready to go. Foolish me, when they said they'd just go right there from the outside and attack the monsters, I believed them. I didn't prepare for the alternative.
Ironically, the problem with fighting flying monsters outdoors is that you can't melee them effectively . . . yet they have a scout, and the spell Flight. They also have Walk on Air and missile spells, so the ground-bound monster is likely out of luck against anyone who doesn't choose to fight it directly. I feel like they outsmarted themselves - convinced themselves that sneaking up was so valuable that they spent the whole session on it. The crushrooms are still intact, too, which is likely an obstacle to future delves in either direction.
Perfect Illusion says it fools all senses except Touch. Just FYI, I rule that to mean hearing, vision, and even smell - but not touch and therefore not taste (since you can't taste without touch.) I don't take it to mean "all possible senses." In DF, there are many ways to sense and target - the normal senses, plus various forms of Detect, Vibration Sense, and magic come to mind.
Someone wondered why no one filled the pit at the entrance full of cement. Probably because it's 60 x 20 x 30 feet. 36,000 cubic feet. You'd need 1333.33 cubic yards of fill. Create Earth isn't permanent.
Someone also wanted to use Shape Earth to shape metal. No, sorry, it doesn't do that - earth and stone, but not metal. There is a GURPS Magic college with metal spells which I very specifically do not use in Felltower.
DF Session 189, Felltower 127 - Quick Delve
We made time for a quick delve today. We played for all of 4 hours . . . more like 3 after 60 minuties of chit-chat.
Date: December 30th, 2023
Weather: Sunny, mildly cold.
Characters
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (305 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (297 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (298 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (304 points)
Urbaine Fabre, half-elf bard (301 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf martial artist (255 points)
Last session, the PCs had scryed out the cave mouth entrance to Felltower and saw two critters there - a stone bull and a chimera . . . and some loot. So they geared up for a quick alpha strike on the two monsters to seize some loot!
Naturally, this plan was too simple and derailed immediately.
They gathered rumors and piled up the consumables - scrolls of Stone to Flesh, potions of all sorts, spellstones - and headed to Felltower. They decided that the approach to the cave mouth entrance was too open - they'd risk an open-field fight with a stone bull and a flying chimera. They didn't want to risk that, especially because they saw no chance of sneaking up on them.
So instead they headed into the dungeon through the main gate. Bad luck struck right away. Thor fell into the pit trying to cross it, getting hurt (5 HP). He drank a Major Healing potion and rolled two 1s, healing 4 back. He and Urbaine managed to get stuck in the portcullis and it took time and FP to extricate them.
Winding through the dungoen was fine, but stuck doors slowed them down and then Thor fell down some slick stairs and had to crawl up them to avoid another fall.
Finally, though, they reached the scrying chamber, hoping to use it. However, their magically created servant was destroyed when it touched the activating button, without even openeing the door. So they gave up on that.
Then it was down to the cavern level, and in to the "rest area" - a natural cave that feels peaceful and safe, with edible mushrooms and pure water. They rested there and ate some mushrooms.
From there they went to a cube-shaped room, and Urbaine sensed magic . . . but they didn't know what kind. So they backed off and went another way.
They approached the cave mouth cavern, but first had to get through a large cave on the way. When they arrived, they found it had a handful of crushrooms!
They backed off and set up a fighting formation, and made noises to attract the mushrooms. It didn't work; they just wouldn't come after the PCs. So the PCs went to them and attacked, with Percy slashing one badly with his axe.
The crushroom began to shriek, letting out a piercing sound that was annoying but certainly also alerted the chimera and stone bull.
They began a fighting retreat, carving up crushrooms that advanced. They decided to just run for it. Thor blocked on crushroom's attack while cutting it up something fierce. But then in a slight miscalculation they ran, but left Thor's back to the crushrooms 4 hexes away from the closest. It did a Move and Attack and rolled a 6 and hit, barely. It clamped on to his leg for 10 HP of damage (0 injury) and 20 CP. Thor was stuck! He tried to break free but failed, and Percy slashed it with his axe. Urbaine created a Perfect Illusion of many Thors to distract the crushrooms, and then Duncan put up a solid stone wall with Create Earth. They hacked the single crushroom on their side of the wall until it dropped away from Thor.
They just headed home from there, since we all had afternoon plans in the real world and so did the PCs, presumably.
Notes:
Well, I had fun. I never promised there weren't any monsters in the area, and this area is notorious for crushrooms . . . and there they were.
I find crushrooms fun because they're big bags of HP that do collossal damage and inflict scads of Control Points, but their defenses are appalling and their "to hit" marginal. So you're fine until they roll well and then you're not. Then it's a matter of beating them to death.
0 xp, 1 xp MVP was Hannari because his player did all of the in-town shopping prep for the fight that wasn't.
See you guys next year!
Date: December 30th, 2023
Weather: Sunny, mildly cold.
Characters
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (305 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (297 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (298 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (304 points)
Urbaine Fabre, half-elf bard (301 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf martial artist (255 points)
Last session, the PCs had scryed out the cave mouth entrance to Felltower and saw two critters there - a stone bull and a chimera . . . and some loot. So they geared up for a quick alpha strike on the two monsters to seize some loot!
Naturally, this plan was too simple and derailed immediately.
They gathered rumors and piled up the consumables - scrolls of Stone to Flesh, potions of all sorts, spellstones - and headed to Felltower. They decided that the approach to the cave mouth entrance was too open - they'd risk an open-field fight with a stone bull and a flying chimera. They didn't want to risk that, especially because they saw no chance of sneaking up on them.
So instead they headed into the dungeon through the main gate. Bad luck struck right away. Thor fell into the pit trying to cross it, getting hurt (5 HP). He drank a Major Healing potion and rolled two 1s, healing 4 back. He and Urbaine managed to get stuck in the portcullis and it took time and FP to extricate them.
Winding through the dungoen was fine, but stuck doors slowed them down and then Thor fell down some slick stairs and had to crawl up them to avoid another fall.
Finally, though, they reached the scrying chamber, hoping to use it. However, their magically created servant was destroyed when it touched the activating button, without even openeing the door. So they gave up on that.
Then it was down to the cavern level, and in to the "rest area" - a natural cave that feels peaceful and safe, with edible mushrooms and pure water. They rested there and ate some mushrooms.
From there they went to a cube-shaped room, and Urbaine sensed magic . . . but they didn't know what kind. So they backed off and went another way.
They approached the cave mouth cavern, but first had to get through a large cave on the way. When they arrived, they found it had a handful of crushrooms!
They backed off and set up a fighting formation, and made noises to attract the mushrooms. It didn't work; they just wouldn't come after the PCs. So the PCs went to them and attacked, with Percy slashing one badly with his axe.
The crushroom began to shriek, letting out a piercing sound that was annoying but certainly also alerted the chimera and stone bull.
They began a fighting retreat, carving up crushrooms that advanced. They decided to just run for it. Thor blocked on crushroom's attack while cutting it up something fierce. But then in a slight miscalculation they ran, but left Thor's back to the crushrooms 4 hexes away from the closest. It did a Move and Attack and rolled a 6 and hit, barely. It clamped on to his leg for 10 HP of damage (0 injury) and 20 CP. Thor was stuck! He tried to break free but failed, and Percy slashed it with his axe. Urbaine created a Perfect Illusion of many Thors to distract the crushrooms, and then Duncan put up a solid stone wall with Create Earth. They hacked the single crushroom on their side of the wall until it dropped away from Thor.
They just headed home from there, since we all had afternoon plans in the real world and so did the PCs, presumably.
Notes:
Well, I had fun. I never promised there weren't any monsters in the area, and this area is notorious for crushrooms . . . and there they were.
I find crushrooms fun because they're big bags of HP that do collossal damage and inflict scads of Control Points, but their defenses are appalling and their "to hit" marginal. So you're fine until they roll well and then you're not. Then it's a matter of beating them to death.
0 xp, 1 xp MVP was Hannari because his player did all of the in-town shopping prep for the fight that wasn't.
See you guys next year!
Friday, December 29, 2023
Links & Notes for 12/29/2023
Stuff for today, game for tomorrow!
- I thought this "old school gamer" vs. "young gamer" comparison - out of experience with both - was interesting.
The analysis of Conan, well, I have my own take on that movie that's . . . different. Not as good as this take, though.
- Doug is nostalgic. I should kill his guy tomorrow so he can be nostalgic for his paper man, too!
Just kidding. A true old school GM cares not for your paper man. A true old school GM doesn't kill them off, either, but just gives you enough chances to get them killed yourself.
- My graduate work was in linguistics, so you know I like this article on languages by Lich Van Winkle.
- Spears.
Omni-spear
Why the Pilum?
- Gothridge Manor is back, kinda!
- I thought this "old school gamer" vs. "young gamer" comparison - out of experience with both - was interesting.
The analysis of Conan, well, I have my own take on that movie that's . . . different. Not as good as this take, though.
- Doug is nostalgic. I should kill his guy tomorrow so he can be nostalgic for his paper man, too!
Just kidding. A true old school GM cares not for your paper man. A true old school GM doesn't kill them off, either, but just gives you enough chances to get them killed yourself.
- My graduate work was in linguistics, so you know I like this article on languages by Lich Van Winkle.
- Spears.
Omni-spear
Why the Pilum?
- Gothridge Manor is back, kinda!
Thursday, December 28, 2023
GURPS Magic - Panic is weird
Panic is a truly weird spell. It's an area, but the effects last on the people who leave the area. Yet it also continues to affect the area, so anyone coming into the area is also forced to resist.
I struggle to find parallels. You can get lit on fire with the flames in a Create Fire-affected area, leave, and still be on fire. It doesn't go out. And you could be put to sleep with Mass Sleep and be carried out of the area and still be sleeping. But I still find the Panic effect really odd. It both causes an effect on the targets they carry with them - and which is clearly magical, and which would go away if they went into a NMZ - and keeps a lasting effect elsewhere.
One of our current PCs uses it a lot, and did so in Vic's side game, and I've kept the ruling from there. But my original ruling was it stayed on the targets, not the area. Essentially, like Mass Daze or Mass Sleep, it did its thing and then ended on the area . . . but not on those who failed to resist. I felt like that was a more consistent effect with the other spells in the game. Yeah, fire and being set on fire, yes, but the effect wouldn't keep trying to set you on fire . . . you wouldn't need magic or 1 minute to pass without maintainence to have it end. I don't know . . . sometimes I think I should have kept my ruling just to keep the spell more consistent with the rest of GURPS Magic.
Not for nothing, but I want to highlight this rule, which is still in play, even if fodder types generally don't avail themselves of it in my games. As noted, that applies to fear effects, too. So you can Panic some monster and it can just decide to suck up the penalties and fight, if that's better for it.
I struggle to find parallels. You can get lit on fire with the flames in a Create Fire-affected area, leave, and still be on fire. It doesn't go out. And you could be put to sleep with Mass Sleep and be carried out of the area and still be sleeping. But I still find the Panic effect really odd. It both causes an effect on the targets they carry with them - and which is clearly magical, and which would go away if they went into a NMZ - and keeps a lasting effect elsewhere.
One of our current PCs uses it a lot, and did so in Vic's side game, and I've kept the ruling from there. But my original ruling was it stayed on the targets, not the area. Essentially, like Mass Daze or Mass Sleep, it did its thing and then ended on the area . . . but not on those who failed to resist. I felt like that was a more consistent effect with the other spells in the game. Yeah, fire and being set on fire, yes, but the effect wouldn't keep trying to set you on fire . . . you wouldn't need magic or 1 minute to pass without maintainence to have it end. I don't know . . . sometimes I think I should have kept my ruling just to keep the spell more consistent with the rest of GURPS Magic.
Not for nothing, but I want to highlight this rule, which is still in play, even if fodder types generally don't avail themselves of it in my games. As noted, that applies to fear effects, too. So you can Panic some monster and it can just decide to suck up the penalties and fight, if that's better for it.
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
Modifiers to In-Town Item Availability Rolls
We use some special rules for item availability, as detailed here.
Right now, most consumable magic items are 9 or less. How do you increase that roll?
- spend extra on upkeep* (every doubling is +1, so x2 = +1, x4 = +2, up to x32 for +5)
- Reputation bonuses
- Status (which you can't just buy, you need to do in-game stuff to gain access to it.)
- any special in-town bonuses in game (currently none in play).
* Upkeep doubling happens last - so if your upkeep is higher from disads, that cost doubles, too.
Notes:
Why don't normal reaction bonuses apply? Because it's not a reaction roll, it's a flat set of odds applied that there are some of these items in town. The modifiers that do count reflect that if you have status, or are flinging money around, or are famous for specific deeds, it's likely people are coming to you to offer such things. Just because you're likeable - or unlikeable - doesn't change the odds, here.
Shouldn't Wealth matter? Possibly, but DF Wealth is more structured as connections to buyers, not sellers.
Can I angle for Status or Reputation? Yes, but the only way is to accomplish things in Felltower and then spend the points when they come up.
Does this number ever change? Yes. If delvers spend enough money in town, the number can change. Generally, the more directly money goes into the economy (upkeep, services) the more it impacts it.
Right now, most consumable magic items are 9 or less. How do you increase that roll?
- spend extra on upkeep* (every doubling is +1, so x2 = +1, x4 = +2, up to x32 for +5)
- Reputation bonuses
- Status (which you can't just buy, you need to do in-game stuff to gain access to it.)
- any special in-town bonuses in game (currently none in play).
* Upkeep doubling happens last - so if your upkeep is higher from disads, that cost doubles, too.
Notes:
Why don't normal reaction bonuses apply? Because it's not a reaction roll, it's a flat set of odds applied that there are some of these items in town. The modifiers that do count reflect that if you have status, or are flinging money around, or are famous for specific deeds, it's likely people are coming to you to offer such things. Just because you're likeable - or unlikeable - doesn't change the odds, here.
Shouldn't Wealth matter? Possibly, but DF Wealth is more structured as connections to buyers, not sellers.
Can I angle for Status or Reputation? Yes, but the only way is to accomplish things in Felltower and then spend the points when they come up.
Does this number ever change? Yes. If delvers spend enough money in town, the number can change. Generally, the more directly money goes into the economy (upkeep, services) the more it impacts it.
Saturday, December 23, 2023
Merry Christmas folks
I'll be offline until 12/26.
Merry Christmas. Remember, Christmas is about presents. Presents are loot. Loot is xp. Therefore Christmas is about XP. I hope you all get some XP this Christmas!
Yours,
Peter
Merry Christmas. Remember, Christmas is about presents. Presents are loot. Loot is xp. Therefore Christmas is about XP. I hope you all get some XP this Christmas!
Yours,
Peter
Friday, December 22, 2023
Random Notes for 12/22/2023
Christmas is coming.
- I won a copy of Holmes & Clark from Tenkar's OSR Christmas. Neat!
- You can win the same on Day 5, too.
- We're hoping to play a session on 12/30.
_ Isle of Sedra has about 24 hous to go.
- And that's all for this week. Slow week for gaming!
- I won a copy of Holmes & Clark from Tenkar's OSR Christmas. Neat!
- You can win the same on Day 5, too.
- We're hoping to play a session on 12/30.
_ Isle of Sedra has about 24 hous to go.
- And that's all for this week. Slow week for gaming!
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
EOE Orbis Shadow Elves & Ver'men
I thought this was neat:
EOE Orbis Return of the Forgotten
I don't use the Ver'men, but I do feature ratmen in my games. I do use some Shadow Elves. The Shadow Elf Killers from this line of figures are the ones I use for the six-fingered Felltower dwellers the PCs have called "Gith."
EOE Orbis Return of the Forgotten
I don't use the Ver'men, but I do feature ratmen in my games. I do use some Shadow Elves. The Shadow Elf Killers from this line of figures are the ones I use for the six-fingered Felltower dwellers the PCs have called "Gith."
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Game Notes for session 188 (and looking to 189)
Not so many notes for last session, because there was so little fighting and so much checking for loot and scrying.
Still, here are a few.
- Bad map notes continue to nag the PCs. Vlad got zapped by a toxic direct-damage spell because they noted a trap on a door, not on the door opener. They spent some time discussing a $ notation on the map, trapped gold coins that aren't there, and similar notes. The $100 map set of Felltower is worth $100, tops.
- I continue to feel a niggling annoyance at "we did" when discussing what past delvers did, even if it was the same PCs. There is a break between groups; I think thinking "we did" and not "delvers in the past did" sometimes stops exploration and testing that new delvers and the new players might do.
- Our newest player, Kevin, is a lot less risk-averse than my original core group. That's helping drive the delves forward a bit.
- Overall, the session was a good example of what a delve could be - focused checking of an area, careful looting, and avoiding useless side detours.
Looking forward to next session, there is a clear goal: go whack the stone bull and chimera, and then loot them. It could be a short session if that goes well. It's a work day for me, since it won't be a Sunday, so a short and violent delve would be useful.
Eventually the PCs will need to go deeper - the upper levels have encounters, but not they aren't packed to the limits with treasure-hoarding monsters, so it's still just a way to get used to the dungeon. The deeper levels and gates are where the real action will be.
Still, here are a few.
- Bad map notes continue to nag the PCs. Vlad got zapped by a toxic direct-damage spell because they noted a trap on a door, not on the door opener. They spent some time discussing a $ notation on the map, trapped gold coins that aren't there, and similar notes. The $100 map set of Felltower is worth $100, tops.
- I continue to feel a niggling annoyance at "we did" when discussing what past delvers did, even if it was the same PCs. There is a break between groups; I think thinking "we did" and not "delvers in the past did" sometimes stops exploration and testing that new delvers and the new players might do.
- Our newest player, Kevin, is a lot less risk-averse than my original core group. That's helping drive the delves forward a bit.
- Overall, the session was a good example of what a delve could be - focused checking of an area, careful looting, and avoiding useless side detours.
Looking forward to next session, there is a clear goal: go whack the stone bull and chimera, and then loot them. It could be a short session if that goes well. It's a work day for me, since it won't be a Sunday, so a short and violent delve would be useful.
Eventually the PCs will need to go deeper - the upper levels have encounters, but not they aren't packed to the limits with treasure-hoarding monsters, so it's still just a way to get used to the dungeon. The deeper levels and gates are where the real action will be.
Monday, December 18, 2023
Marx Navarone Playset Memories
Christmas is coming, so thoughts turn to presents and toys.
I got this Marx Navarone Playset when I was a kid. I eventually passed the mountain fortress on to a relative's kid, who made it a friendly happy place to visit. That was not how I played with it.
What I remember the most about the set was that mine came missing the mounts for the guns. I had the turret locations, and the guns, but not the piece that connected them and allowed them to mount and swivel. I don't recall anyone ever suggesting that we write to Marx and ask for them, or buy them from a parts sheet, or anything of the sort. They weren't there, and that was that.
Meanwhile these days something like that would be take care of in a flash. I'd post on social media that mine came missing a part, tag Marx, and get a replacement piece on the way ASAP.
It's too bad, because my enduring memory of the toyset was how fun it was, and how the cannons had to just sit there next to the mounting spot. I quickly lost them and just put soldiers with MGs there to defend against the attacking soldiers. I used it as a G.I. Joe base, too.
Too bad it didn't come with the gun mounts though.
I got this Marx Navarone Playset when I was a kid. I eventually passed the mountain fortress on to a relative's kid, who made it a friendly happy place to visit. That was not how I played with it.
What I remember the most about the set was that mine came missing the mounts for the guns. I had the turret locations, and the guns, but not the piece that connected them and allowed them to mount and swivel. I don't recall anyone ever suggesting that we write to Marx and ask for them, or buy them from a parts sheet, or anything of the sort. They weren't there, and that was that.
Meanwhile these days something like that would be take care of in a flash. I'd post on social media that mine came missing a part, tag Marx, and get a replacement piece on the way ASAP.
It's too bad, because my enduring memory of the toyset was how fun it was, and how the cannons had to just sit there next to the mounting spot. I quickly lost them and just put soldiers with MGs there to defend against the attacking soldiers. I used it as a G.I. Joe base, too.
Too bad it didn't come with the gun mounts though.
Sunday, December 17, 2023
DF Session 188, Felltower 126 - Werewolf Loot & Crystal Gazing
Date: December 17th, 2023
Weather: Morning cloudy, cool, evening rainy, cool.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (308 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (305 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (297 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (298 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (304 points)
Urbaine Fabre, half-elf bard (301 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf martial artist (255 points)
We started off in town, with the PCs gathering rumors and buying assorted stuff. Silvered gear was a-plenty this time around, just in case. They heard rumors of a dungeon under a lost city, more of the mind-warping Aruda, and some others.
The group climbed up the mountain and into Felltower, Vlad scouting ahead and finding evidence of 6-7 giant rats in the castle ground above. They went in the main entrance and to the left, through the bent bars (Percy took a few minutes after getting stuck.) The door beyond was easy enough to open, clearly having been battered hard as it no longer sits flush in its frame.
Beyond it they cross a large room, and smelled burned meat. They decided to investigate, since they smelled the same last time. Thor crowbarred the door open and beyond it, in the dark, waited three ogres. Vlad immediately snapped off an arrow at one, who dodged. "HEY!" it yelled, and combat was on. The waiting ogres flung spears at the PCs, and hit Thor and Vlad. Thor's armor bounced the spear; Vlad took 3 HP injury to his left foot. Percy parried the one that hit him.
The ogres engaged the PCs with their greataxes. They didn't last too long. Urbaine stunned two of them with Rapier Wit despite their Magic Resistance, Percy smashed all three down with skull hits, one with an assist from Hannari's axes and kamas and Vlad's bow, one with an assist from a brutal neck shot from Thor, and the last with help from a 6d Stone Missile from Duncan. The Ogres did roll a critical dodge to make Percy waste a whole second off-balance, and despite low Dodge scores they dodged very often. But it just prolonged the fight a few seconds.
The ogres had their axes and spears, but also a pot full of over 5000 cp (~$500), a copper torc, some arrows, and a longsword. They checked if the sword was magical but it was not - it was fine, though.
They stashed most of the loot after a long discussion about carrying vs. not carrying, and then headed to the second level.
On the way, they stopped at a metal door and Vlad began to explain all about the headless statues he'd read about being in there. (I actually just said, "Why aren't you just showing them?" - a rare GM push to end some of this meta-silliness of tour guiding by guys who haven't been here.) In they went, and they checked the headless statues and did Seeker to try and find the heads. Duncan got a vision of one of them on a pile of treasure with a floating orb-shaped monster above it before the vision faded.
Next they moved down to where they fought the werewolves, through the dark temple - and through a door along the way that fell flat under a 3 roll by Percy. Once pas there, they headed downstairs. There wasn't a trace of the fight, just the faint smell of old rot. Not even bloodstains remained.
Checking where their map showed rooms they found were the werewolves lived - two rooms, each with 4 bedrolls. One had a Cashamashite fringed carpet and four plush chairs, the other a cut-down table and four pillows. Between them they found water, 60 dwarven rations (Vlad pounded down three as fast as possible), some gems, a few paut, a Minor Healing potion, a crystal vial of flaky black stuff (they thought poison, it turned out to be pepper when they checked in town), and some gold and copper coins.
Next they found a secret door their map indicated was a normal door. The map pointed out a trigger button, so Vlad pushed it . . . and felt a tearing, wrenching pain and suffered 24 toxic damage. He was still down 2 HP from his foot wound earlier, so was at -1xHP exactly and had to make a death check. He survived, and wasn't stunned, either. He dropped to a seat and waited. Chop cast Major Healing and rolled a 4 and healed the whole wound, for free.
The secret door was to a crystal ball room. No one had Crystal Gazing, but Urbaine went ahead and grabbed the ball and concentrated on seeing a spot nearby on their map. It worked! He quickly tried to spot one of the statue heads - no. And then the green zombie room, which failed. At that point he realized he was down 3 FP and let go. Duncan took over, and scryed like mad. He tried a lot of spots - Sterick's Tomb, town, the treasure hoard he saw . . . to no avail. But he was able to scan the dark temple above, which they'd traversed on their way down. Finally he looked at the cave entrance, aka the dragon cave . . . and saw a stone bull and a chimera (identified later) . . . and some treasure
They spent the rest of the session checking everything else on this level except the cave area and the green gemstone zombie room. There wasn't anything of value.
That all done, they headed back, retracing their steps and taking everything, from chairs to rations to greataxes. They sold the lot in town.
Notes:
- Someone wanted to talk to the ogres - maybe even Vlad, actually - but shooting instantly didn't allow for other options.
- Luckily for the PCs, there were two orichalcum keys in the dungeon. This one wasn't originally here, but has made its way around the dungeon for a while and ended up with the werewolves a while back.
- They sold pretty much everything, netting about $1200 each.
- 4 xp each for loot, MVP was Chop for healing.
Fun game, and a good delve where they largely stayed on their main plan with only two side trips. We'll see if that continues in the future.
Weather: Morning cloudy, cool, evening rainy, cool.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (308 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (305 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (297 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (298 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (304 points)
Urbaine Fabre, half-elf bard (301 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf martial artist (255 points)
We started off in town, with the PCs gathering rumors and buying assorted stuff. Silvered gear was a-plenty this time around, just in case. They heard rumors of a dungeon under a lost city, more of the mind-warping Aruda, and some others.
The group climbed up the mountain and into Felltower, Vlad scouting ahead and finding evidence of 6-7 giant rats in the castle ground above. They went in the main entrance and to the left, through the bent bars (Percy took a few minutes after getting stuck.) The door beyond was easy enough to open, clearly having been battered hard as it no longer sits flush in its frame.
Beyond it they cross a large room, and smelled burned meat. They decided to investigate, since they smelled the same last time. Thor crowbarred the door open and beyond it, in the dark, waited three ogres. Vlad immediately snapped off an arrow at one, who dodged. "HEY!" it yelled, and combat was on. The waiting ogres flung spears at the PCs, and hit Thor and Vlad. Thor's armor bounced the spear; Vlad took 3 HP injury to his left foot. Percy parried the one that hit him.
The ogres engaged the PCs with their greataxes. They didn't last too long. Urbaine stunned two of them with Rapier Wit despite their Magic Resistance, Percy smashed all three down with skull hits, one with an assist from Hannari's axes and kamas and Vlad's bow, one with an assist from a brutal neck shot from Thor, and the last with help from a 6d Stone Missile from Duncan. The Ogres did roll a critical dodge to make Percy waste a whole second off-balance, and despite low Dodge scores they dodged very often. But it just prolonged the fight a few seconds.
The ogres had their axes and spears, but also a pot full of over 5000 cp (~$500), a copper torc, some arrows, and a longsword. They checked if the sword was magical but it was not - it was fine, though.
They stashed most of the loot after a long discussion about carrying vs. not carrying, and then headed to the second level.
On the way, they stopped at a metal door and Vlad began to explain all about the headless statues he'd read about being in there. (I actually just said, "Why aren't you just showing them?" - a rare GM push to end some of this meta-silliness of tour guiding by guys who haven't been here.) In they went, and they checked the headless statues and did Seeker to try and find the heads. Duncan got a vision of one of them on a pile of treasure with a floating orb-shaped monster above it before the vision faded.
Next they moved down to where they fought the werewolves, through the dark temple - and through a door along the way that fell flat under a 3 roll by Percy. Once pas there, they headed downstairs. There wasn't a trace of the fight, just the faint smell of old rot. Not even bloodstains remained.
Checking where their map showed rooms they found were the werewolves lived - two rooms, each with 4 bedrolls. One had a Cashamashite fringed carpet and four plush chairs, the other a cut-down table and four pillows. Between them they found water, 60 dwarven rations (Vlad pounded down three as fast as possible), some gems, a few paut, a Minor Healing potion, a crystal vial of flaky black stuff (they thought poison, it turned out to be pepper when they checked in town), and some gold and copper coins.
Next they found a secret door their map indicated was a normal door. The map pointed out a trigger button, so Vlad pushed it . . . and felt a tearing, wrenching pain and suffered 24 toxic damage. He was still down 2 HP from his foot wound earlier, so was at -1xHP exactly and had to make a death check. He survived, and wasn't stunned, either. He dropped to a seat and waited. Chop cast Major Healing and rolled a 4 and healed the whole wound, for free.
The secret door was to a crystal ball room. No one had Crystal Gazing, but Urbaine went ahead and grabbed the ball and concentrated on seeing a spot nearby on their map. It worked! He quickly tried to spot one of the statue heads - no. And then the green zombie room, which failed. At that point he realized he was down 3 FP and let go. Duncan took over, and scryed like mad. He tried a lot of spots - Sterick's Tomb, town, the treasure hoard he saw . . . to no avail. But he was able to scan the dark temple above, which they'd traversed on their way down. Finally he looked at the cave entrance, aka the dragon cave . . . and saw a stone bull and a chimera (identified later) . . . and some treasure
They spent the rest of the session checking everything else on this level except the cave area and the green gemstone zombie room. There wasn't anything of value.
That all done, they headed back, retracing their steps and taking everything, from chairs to rations to greataxes. They sold the lot in town.
Notes:
- Someone wanted to talk to the ogres - maybe even Vlad, actually - but shooting instantly didn't allow for other options.
- Luckily for the PCs, there were two orichalcum keys in the dungeon. This one wasn't originally here, but has made its way around the dungeon for a while and ended up with the werewolves a while back.
- They sold pretty much everything, netting about $1200 each.
- 4 xp each for loot, MVP was Chop for healing.
Fun game, and a good delve where they largely stayed on their main plan with only two side trips. We'll see if that continues in the future.
Friday, December 15, 2023
Links & Thoughts for 12/15/2023
Quite a busy week for me, so I didn't have a chance to post anything of value for a few days.
- Next Felltower delve is Sunday, 12/17. Probably the last delve for the year, unless people suddenly find time on 12/30 or something. I will try to get a small group delve going with whoever can make it before the year ends.
I won't lie, I do like having a consistent group of regulars. I am concerned that we may end up with an unstated "only play when almost everyone can make it" instead of "as often as we can, with whoever can make it." I'll keep pushing for the latter, although my schedule has been a problem this year as well.
- I'm slogging through the final battles in Fantasy General. They're winabble, but man, the terrain is so bloody awful and it's hard to make use of support troops. So many of my battles come down to just heavy infantry and sky hunters doing the vast majority of the heavy lifting in the fights. That bleeds out my vets as losses are made up with new recruits that bring down unit values. It's tough but I suppose it should be.
- Nice cover shot from the FASA Doctor Who Daleks supplement.
- I like this aligment system. You could probably couple this with a "Law" and "Chaos" battle, too - use these as motivations for actions, and make Law and Chaos true supernatural competing systems that people will join - or not - depending on their motivations.
- Next Felltower delve is Sunday, 12/17. Probably the last delve for the year, unless people suddenly find time on 12/30 or something. I will try to get a small group delve going with whoever can make it before the year ends.
I won't lie, I do like having a consistent group of regulars. I am concerned that we may end up with an unstated "only play when almost everyone can make it" instead of "as often as we can, with whoever can make it." I'll keep pushing for the latter, although my schedule has been a problem this year as well.
- I'm slogging through the final battles in Fantasy General. They're winabble, but man, the terrain is so bloody awful and it's hard to make use of support troops. So many of my battles come down to just heavy infantry and sky hunters doing the vast majority of the heavy lifting in the fights. That bleeds out my vets as losses are made up with new recruits that bring down unit values. It's tough but I suppose it should be.
- Nice cover shot from the FASA Doctor Who Daleks supplement.
- I like this aligment system. You could probably couple this with a "Law" and "Chaos" battle, too - use these as motivations for actions, and make Law and Chaos true supernatural competing systems that people will join - or not - depending on their motivations.
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Monday, December 11, 2023
I blame the GTA trailer
So, I was nearly done - two fights or so - from the end of Fantasy General, and making some steady progress on another gaming project.
And then the GTA6 trailer was released.
So I hooked my original XBOX up and resumed playing the game I'd purchased the XBOX to play in the first place . . . GTA3: Vice City!
That killed off the little free time I had for finishing the other game and doing some gaming stuff. Hah.
Until I get tired of drowning or getting shot, I'll be spending a bit of free time being Tommy Vercetti, voiced by Ray Liotta, rest in peace.
And then the GTA6 trailer was released.
So I hooked my original XBOX up and resumed playing the game I'd purchased the XBOX to play in the first place . . . GTA3: Vice City!
That killed off the little free time I had for finishing the other game and doing some gaming stuff. Hah.
Until I get tired of drowning or getting shot, I'll be spending a bit of free time being Tommy Vercetti, voiced by Ray Liotta, rest in peace.
Sunday, December 10, 2023
A Felltower shot clock?
In discussion of my post yesterday, Doug showed us these plug-ins for our VTT-based Felltower game:
https://github.com/MenesesPT/TimerVTT
https://foundryvtt.com/packages/combatready
Literal shot clocks, here - timers for your turn before it skips you.
I think we've all agreed that this wouldn't be fun, especially if the clock didn't allow for extension or pausing as you deal with interface issues and adding modifiers to the roll modifier bucket.
Maybe even then it wouldn't be too fun.
I actually think my players generally make pretty quick decisions, but the mechanics of the game slow things a bit. And yes, all too often (as in >0 times) people change their mind after the roll is calculated. I'd prefer people just commit and take the roll that comes.
I don't want to force everyone to just move along . . . I just it better when "**** it, I take the shot" beats out "Let me choose the maximally best option for this turn based on group consensus and math."
https://github.com/MenesesPT/TimerVTT
https://foundryvtt.com/packages/combatready
Literal shot clocks, here - timers for your turn before it skips you.
I think we've all agreed that this wouldn't be fun, especially if the clock didn't allow for extension or pausing as you deal with interface issues and adding modifiers to the roll modifier bucket.
Maybe even then it wouldn't be too fun.
I actually think my players generally make pretty quick decisions, but the mechanics of the game slow things a bit. And yes, all too often (as in >0 times) people change their mind after the roll is calculated. I'd prefer people just commit and take the roll that comes.
I don't want to force everyone to just move along . . . I just it better when "**** it, I take the shot" beats out "Let me choose the maximally best option for this turn based on group consensus and math."
Saturday, December 9, 2023
Never tell me the odds! Calculation Rule.
One thing that bugs me about games is this sequence:
- player proposes action
- player calculates the roll for the action
- player rejects option or changes it, often with help or suggestions from Statler and Waldorf*
- player find the mathematically best option and selects that OR starts over with a new action because "My guy wouldn't do that."
- roll occurs.
That's not very Han Solo, is it?
My preferred way to play is this:
- player proposes action, which may have included some between-turns calculation
- everyone else STFU and sits there
- player calculates the roll
- player rolls, regardless of the results
To be honest, this is how I play. I'd really like it if I could make this a rule. You could turn the caps off of Deceptive Attack and similiar things and let anything work, so you could potentially knock your skill down to below 10 or even below 3 (and thus no possible success) by choosing poorly.
I have tried to implement this but my players essentially resist through inertia and eventually revert to the top-listed approach.
Personally, I find it a bit less fun than the second option.
If only I could enforce this rule, I think game would be a bit more fun in the long run . . .
*
- player proposes action
- player calculates the roll for the action
- player rejects option or changes it, often with help or suggestions from Statler and Waldorf*
- player find the mathematically best option and selects that OR starts over with a new action because "My guy wouldn't do that."
- roll occurs.
That's not very Han Solo, is it?
My preferred way to play is this:
- player proposes action, which may have included some between-turns calculation
- everyone else STFU and sits there
- player calculates the roll
- player rolls, regardless of the results
To be honest, this is how I play. I'd really like it if I could make this a rule. You could turn the caps off of Deceptive Attack and similiar things and let anything work, so you could potentially knock your skill down to below 10 or even below 3 (and thus no possible success) by choosing poorly.
I have tried to implement this but my players essentially resist through inertia and eventually revert to the top-listed approach.
Personally, I find it a bit less fun than the second option.
If only I could enforce this rule, I think game would be a bit more fun in the long run . . .
*
Friday, December 8, 2023
Links for 12/8/2023
Just a few things I read in the past week.
- Doug's got a setting Kickstarter for OSE.
- Doug also has a sale going.
- And that's about it. Crazy busy week folks!
- Doug's got a setting Kickstarter for OSE.
- Doug also has a sale going.
- And that's about it. Crazy busy week folks!
Thursday, December 7, 2023
Notes on the Magic Items in Felltower
I noted in the comments on my magic items post that the PCs need to delve deeply, boldly, but cautiously to find magic items.
I'd like to expand on that.
The reason why this is the case is simple:
The upper levels have been largely scoured for magic items. Not everything has been found . . . but for the most part, the major magic items have been found.
If the PCs want the stuff that hasn't been found . . . it's deeper, or beyond gates.
Agar's Wand? It's out there.
Atregex's items? Go deeper.
Frenzy? It's not hidden in some nook on level 1, I'll say that for sure.
Grimslaughter? Same.
The PCs have missed items, behind the Unopenable Doors, in the Lost City, in the Cold Fens, and in Felltower. But mostly, they're deeper than people are willing to go. If they want better stuff, especally epic, unique stuff . . . it's going to take some deeper delves.
I have restocked the upper levels, so there are things to do up there, but it's not going to inclue too many unique, powerful magic items. Those are down deeper. With the nastier, more formidable monsters.
Have fun . . . the only way your paper man is getting more powerful magic items in GURPS in by risking their paper lives.
I'd like to expand on that.
The reason why this is the case is simple:
The upper levels have been largely scoured for magic items. Not everything has been found . . . but for the most part, the major magic items have been found.
If the PCs want the stuff that hasn't been found . . . it's deeper, or beyond gates.
Agar's Wand? It's out there.
Atregex's items? Go deeper.
Frenzy? It's not hidden in some nook on level 1, I'll say that for sure.
Grimslaughter? Same.
The PCs have missed items, behind the Unopenable Doors, in the Lost City, in the Cold Fens, and in Felltower. But mostly, they're deeper than people are willing to go. If they want better stuff, especally epic, unique stuff . . . it's going to take some deeper delves.
I have restocked the upper levels, so there are things to do up there, but it's not going to inclue too many unique, powerful magic items. Those are down deeper. With the nastier, more formidable monsters.
Have fun . . . the only way your paper man is getting more powerful magic items in GURPS in by risking their paper lives.
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
Dungeon Fantasy Role-Playing Game Bundle of Holding
$18 will get you all the core DFRPG materials. Around $40 will get you the whole thing.
DFRPG Bundle of Holding
DFRPG Bundle of Holding
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
Admin: Disappearing Comments
Just an admin FYI - if your comments disappear or don't show for a while, Blogger is being stupid again.
For whatever reason, numbers of comments are being flagged as spam - even very old comments, even my comments - and won't show up. I don't get a notice but I can go into the spam folder and one by one approve them. Some I have approved before and had re-marked as spam.
No idea why it's being stupid, but here we are. Sorry about that - the downsides of using hosting I don't have to pay for.
For whatever reason, numbers of comments are being flagged as spam - even very old comments, even my comments - and won't show up. I don't get a notice but I can go into the spam folder and one by one approve them. Some I have approved before and had re-marked as spam.
No idea why it's being stupid, but here we are. Sorry about that - the downsides of using hosting I don't have to pay for.
Monday, December 4, 2023
When Orcus isn't enough, add friends?
This post over on Old School FRP Tumblr caught my eye:
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
They're actually the four horsemen of Orcus.
Just eyeballing them vs. AD&D 1st edition's Orcus . . . I'm pretty sure they're a very serious threat to him. He's got 85% magic resistance and excellent combat abilities . . . but a 23rd level magic-user and everyone with weapons that can hurt him, even the summoned minotaurs . . .
Good thing they're Chaotic Evil, like him, so cooperation isn't likely to go very far.
It's interesting when you beef up a powerful unique monster with a coterie of allies who are also seriously powerful. I think in a way it diminishes the main monster, though. Instead of Orcus being a boss fight you can just have, there is this other layer of guys you have to get through first. So now it's a bit of an extended encounter. It can be another excuse to push off a fight like that later and later in a campaign. Put it off long enough, and you won't ever get to the big demon. And if it goes from "very tough encounter" to "campaign culimation" than they can't have 85 HP and go down in a 10 round melee. You need them to have hundreds of HP, piles of allies, more powers than can be handled . . . and the PCs need to escalate to match.
I've been trying to front load the scary stuff and even then it's tough to get people to engage. So while I like the idea here, I worry that it's just another way for the PCs and the GM to back off from using the cool unique monster that is Orcus.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
They're actually the four horsemen of Orcus.
Just eyeballing them vs. AD&D 1st edition's Orcus . . . I'm pretty sure they're a very serious threat to him. He's got 85% magic resistance and excellent combat abilities . . . but a 23rd level magic-user and everyone with weapons that can hurt him, even the summoned minotaurs . . .
Good thing they're Chaotic Evil, like him, so cooperation isn't likely to go very far.
It's interesting when you beef up a powerful unique monster with a coterie of allies who are also seriously powerful. I think in a way it diminishes the main monster, though. Instead of Orcus being a boss fight you can just have, there is this other layer of guys you have to get through first. So now it's a bit of an extended encounter. It can be another excuse to push off a fight like that later and later in a campaign. Put it off long enough, and you won't ever get to the big demon. And if it goes from "very tough encounter" to "campaign culimation" than they can't have 85 HP and go down in a 10 round melee. You need them to have hundreds of HP, piles of allies, more powers than can be handled . . . and the PCs need to escalate to match.
I've been trying to front load the scary stuff and even then it's tough to get people to engage. So while I like the idea here, I worry that it's just another way for the PCs and the GM to back off from using the cool unique monster that is Orcus.
Sunday, December 3, 2023
Where is the magic treasure in Felltower?
Following up on my post about treasure in Felltower . . . let's talk about magic treasures in Felltower.
Note that in my previous post I didn't really talk about magic vs. mundane treasure.
That's because my treasure generating system - displayed in DF21 - is a total value of a hoard. It's not the mundane value, just the value.
What does that mean for magic loot?
Short version, magic loot is more likely to turn up in big hoards than in small ones. Look at the previous post - the bigger sources of loot are also likely to be the bigger sources of magical loot.
Longer version?
It's complicated.
Big hoards often have magical treasure.
Intelligent monsters will use magical treasure actively.
Abandoned loot might include magical treasure . . . but it's generally consumables and the odd minor item.
Wandering monsters actually have a higher chance of magic loot than non-magic loot. In that there have been a few special wandering monsters - the original Sword Spirit, Valmar, carried a significant magical sword, for example, and Durak has some magical items he uses. There might be others. But these are also especially lethal encounters and aren't the norm.
With those caveats, what I said last time on treasure still stands.
I think I've said this before, but:
All of the magic items in DFT3: Artifacts of Felltower? They're in, or accessible from, Felltower. Every single one.
DFRPG Magic Items? The unique items are all in, or accessible from, Felltower. All of the new consumables, too.
Other magic items books, like DF6 or Doug's excellent books? Some of the items are in Felltower.
More I cannot yet say. Hopefully, deeper delving will unearth more of these items.
Note that in my previous post I didn't really talk about magic vs. mundane treasure.
That's because my treasure generating system - displayed in DF21 - is a total value of a hoard. It's not the mundane value, just the value.
What does that mean for magic loot?
Short version, magic loot is more likely to turn up in big hoards than in small ones. Look at the previous post - the bigger sources of loot are also likely to be the bigger sources of magical loot.
Longer version?
It's complicated.
Big hoards often have magical treasure.
Intelligent monsters will use magical treasure actively.
Abandoned loot might include magical treasure . . . but it's generally consumables and the odd minor item.
Wandering monsters actually have a higher chance of magic loot than non-magic loot. In that there have been a few special wandering monsters - the original Sword Spirit, Valmar, carried a significant magical sword, for example, and Durak has some magical items he uses. There might be others. But these are also especially lethal encounters and aren't the norm.
With those caveats, what I said last time on treasure still stands.
I think I've said this before, but:
All of the magic items in DFT3: Artifacts of Felltower? They're in, or accessible from, Felltower. Every single one.
DFRPG Magic Items? The unique items are all in, or accessible from, Felltower. All of the new consumables, too.
Other magic items books, like DF6 or Doug's excellent books? Some of the items are in Felltower.
More I cannot yet say. Hopefully, deeper delving will unearth more of these items.
Saturday, December 2, 2023
More random links!
I totally forgot these yesterday!
- Stocking monsters with In Places Deep.
My Stocking Procedure
- Great random village ideas for a peripatetic party.
What's up with this village
- Discussion of the front-loaded benefits of being demihuman in AD&D. This is where point-buy is really sweet. You don't get anything you didn't pay for.
- Stocking monsters with In Places Deep.
My Stocking Procedure
- Great random village ideas for a peripatetic party.
What's up with this village
- Discussion of the front-loaded benefits of being demihuman in AD&D. This is where point-buy is really sweet. You don't get anything you didn't pay for.
Friday, December 1, 2023
Friday Roundup for 12/1/2023
Random links to end the week.
- I missed a GURPS post yesterday for Thursday; I was just solidly busy until late and forgot. I generally don't like to miss posts, but it'll have to wait. It was conceived of but not written so it's not as simple as hitting "post." Next week.
- I pulled up my copy of Polyhedron #12 thanks to this post on Grognardia. I was intrigued about the "how to describe maps to mappers" article by Frank Mentzar, author of D&D and one of my favorite articles to talk about. I was . . . underwhelmed.
Pretty much, he describes how to walk through a map, using some shared vocabulary, to very exactly describe the room for mapping. So detailed, in fact, that my first thought was, why not just show them your map? It's really, really detailed and very exacting. If you're not going to be hitting the basic description so they can visualize it, just show them the map.
Oh well.
- Logic. Liches must be able to taste ice cream, otherwise, what's the point?
- Known Lands of Labrynth Lord hexmap.
- Maybe one more game in 20023. Feels like it was a very thin year for gaming.
- I missed a GURPS post yesterday for Thursday; I was just solidly busy until late and forgot. I generally don't like to miss posts, but it'll have to wait. It was conceived of but not written so it's not as simple as hitting "post." Next week.
- I pulled up my copy of Polyhedron #12 thanks to this post on Grognardia. I was intrigued about the "how to describe maps to mappers" article by Frank Mentzar, author of D&D and one of my favorite articles to talk about. I was . . . underwhelmed.
Pretty much, he describes how to walk through a map, using some shared vocabulary, to very exactly describe the room for mapping. So detailed, in fact, that my first thought was, why not just show them your map? It's really, really detailed and very exacting. If you're not going to be hitting the basic description so they can visualize it, just show them the map.
Oh well.
- Logic. Liches must be able to taste ice cream, otherwise, what's the point?
- Known Lands of Labrynth Lord hexmap.
- Maybe one more game in 20023. Feels like it was a very thin year for gaming.
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
My Black Friday purchases . . . weren't
This year, I made all of one purchase on Black Friday (well, Cyber Monday) that related to tabletop gaming.*
It was barely even a purchase. I took last-minute advantage of a Forge sale to get 10% off my yearly subscription to Forge's hosting of DF Felltower. I was able to move my renewal date ahead, get pro-rated on the price, and knock 10% off. So I saved a bit less than $5.
$5 as a gaming purchase on the biggest sale weekend of the year here in the US.
Why?
It's not like my gaming discretionary funds went down any - people still buy my books and SJG still pays me for writing work during the year.
I think it comes down to a bit of purchase fatigue and a growing lack of need.
I bought a few things over the year - DCC #100 and DCC Lankhmar, and How to Defend Your Lair. Maybe one or two other things I'm not thinking of. Even just those have given me a few things to read that I just haven't had time for. Some of the lack of time is from another purchase, Fire in the Lake. All good stuff.
I don't need minis since I haven't been painting, thanks to a decline in my ability to paint those small details effectively.
And there hasn't been a flood of new GURPS titles, has there? A few things here and there.
Plus I just don't need a lot.
The longer I run DF Felltower, the less published materials really help. I play with a smaller and smaller set of rules - not always simpler rules, but less of them overall. I don't need more. Generally, I start with "We're not using any of this, unless explicitly included." Most material stays that way. I just don't need to add a lot. We modify the living hell out of most things, and come up with our own rules for things to speed play along or provide versimilitude or enjoyment.
I have less time to digest and understand and incorporate what I read, too. So plunking down money on new gaming books takes away from what I value the most - having the time to play, or engage in my other hobbies, interests, and work.
It's kind of sad . . . but at the moment I feel a little disconnected from the creative work going on in the field. I do feel very connected to the creative work going on in my immediate circle. We'll see if that's a blip or a trend.
* I did buy some non-gaming stuff - replaced some worn-out footwear, replaced a piece of broken exercise equipment, and spent a wee bit on grappling. I bought a video game, too. I'm not against spending in and of itself.
It was barely even a purchase. I took last-minute advantage of a Forge sale to get 10% off my yearly subscription to Forge's hosting of DF Felltower. I was able to move my renewal date ahead, get pro-rated on the price, and knock 10% off. So I saved a bit less than $5.
$5 as a gaming purchase on the biggest sale weekend of the year here in the US.
Why?
It's not like my gaming discretionary funds went down any - people still buy my books and SJG still pays me for writing work during the year.
I think it comes down to a bit of purchase fatigue and a growing lack of need.
I bought a few things over the year - DCC #100 and DCC Lankhmar, and How to Defend Your Lair. Maybe one or two other things I'm not thinking of. Even just those have given me a few things to read that I just haven't had time for. Some of the lack of time is from another purchase, Fire in the Lake. All good stuff.
I don't need minis since I haven't been painting, thanks to a decline in my ability to paint those small details effectively.
And there hasn't been a flood of new GURPS titles, has there? A few things here and there.
Plus I just don't need a lot.
The longer I run DF Felltower, the less published materials really help. I play with a smaller and smaller set of rules - not always simpler rules, but less of them overall. I don't need more. Generally, I start with "We're not using any of this, unless explicitly included." Most material stays that way. I just don't need to add a lot. We modify the living hell out of most things, and come up with our own rules for things to speed play along or provide versimilitude or enjoyment.
I have less time to digest and understand and incorporate what I read, too. So plunking down money on new gaming books takes away from what I value the most - having the time to play, or engage in my other hobbies, interests, and work.
It's kind of sad . . . but at the moment I feel a little disconnected from the creative work going on in the field. I do feel very connected to the creative work going on in my immediate circle. We'll see if that's a blip or a trend.
* I did buy some non-gaming stuff - replaced some worn-out footwear, replaced a piece of broken exercise equipment, and spent a wee bit on grappling. I bought a video game, too. I'm not against spending in and of itself.
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Where is the treasure in Felltower megadungeon?
There is a lot of treasure in Felltower, but it's not evenly distributed across rooms or encounters. Where can you find it?
From most to least, here are the places - roughly - where you will or will not find treasure.
Dedicated treasuries. There are few of these in Felltower, but they exist. These places are usually guarded, trapped, hidden, or all three. They're loaded with treasure. The PCs found one of these after solving the "rotating statue" puzzle, and took home some serious loot - piles of coins, so much so that they missed some of them in a hidden compartment of a chest, a ring with wishes, and a few other significant magic items. Such places aren't terribly obvious, and are hard to blindly seek out, but they are out there . . . and have piles of loot. While not universally true, a well-hidden and (passively or actively) well-guarded location can be a sign of a potential hoard. Not always - some are just hidden and unguarded, other places aren't full of treasure but are guarded for other reasons . . . but the odds are in favor of loot behind loot-protecting defenses.
Hoards. Intelligent or otherwise treasure-hoarding monsters tend to have the biggest hoards. They may in fact exceed the dedicated treasuries - but they fall to second on this list because the amount of treasure can vary a lot more. The smarter, and the more powerful, the monsters, the bigger the hoard. It's almost directly linear because of the roll bonuses and penalties included in the treasure system I use (see DF21: Megadungeons.) These will be protected, and may not be with the monster itself - the loot might be hidden nearby. Do not expect an intelligent monster to carry its loot with it unless that's the only way to protect it. Sufficiently nasty monsters might feel free to leave their treasure out in the open, and even wander off away from it without fear of theft - knowing that the other dungeon dwellers won't molest it out of fear of the consequences. Most others will either need to stay close by, or leave it guarded - much like a dedicated treasury, with traps, concealment, and possibly guards.
Finding the "lair" of an intelligent or otherwise treasure-hoarding monster is a good way to increase your odds of finding loot. Expect that they'll want to keep you as far away from their loot as possible in many cases.
Unguarded, Hidden Treasure. Some "empty" rooms and "looted" areas have loot. It's a relatively small proportion of them - less than 1 in 6 of them initially, and many have been looted over the decade of play. But one way to secure treasure is to stash it somewhere that people will either avoid, or just bypass. Expect such to be carefully hidden, and hard to find - simply wandering around with See Secrets making Per checks isn't likely to turn it up . . . although it's a good start. What you can find will vary, but generally is small compared to guarded loot.
Believe it or not, "empty" rooms with unguarded but hidden loot will generally be more valuable than wandering monsters or patrols out looking for, or responding, to trouble.
Wandering Monsters. These are the least loot-worthy foes and have the lowest amount of treasure as a group. This has come up pretty consistantly since we started playing, with players new to the group and old, veteran and new to game. It's the idea that adventurers should welcome wandering monsters, as they'll be something to fight and have treasure. This is almost 100% false. Occasionally, some wandering monsters will be intelligent, armed foes that can be defeated and looted for their gear. But they're the minority. The majority of Felltower wandering monsters are unintelligent predators or scavengers - rat swarms, stirges, puddings, oozes, spiders, and similar nasties. None of them carry loot and not a person in the game world is willing to fork over money for their remains. Some wandering monsters are made of valuable bits, but you're taking a high-risk low-reward approach here; fine if you just want enough XP to hit the threshold for low-point PCs but even then the odds aren't in favor of this working out for you.
Even when intelligent, armed foes "wander" up, they're likely the sharp edge of a larger group, they usually don't fight to the death, and they almost never carry their loot with them into combat.* They're the "wandering monster" you least want to encounter unless your plan is "let the enemy set the objective." The PCs have often done exactly this, but it's always ended up with a bigger fight, for less gains, than penetrating to a superior loot location would gain them.
Good luck, and good looting. And stop banging on doors hoping to attract treasure-bearing monsters. It's a shell game.
* Like Colonel Bat Guano.
From most to least, here are the places - roughly - where you will or will not find treasure.
Dedicated treasuries. There are few of these in Felltower, but they exist. These places are usually guarded, trapped, hidden, or all three. They're loaded with treasure. The PCs found one of these after solving the "rotating statue" puzzle, and took home some serious loot - piles of coins, so much so that they missed some of them in a hidden compartment of a chest, a ring with wishes, and a few other significant magic items. Such places aren't terribly obvious, and are hard to blindly seek out, but they are out there . . . and have piles of loot. While not universally true, a well-hidden and (passively or actively) well-guarded location can be a sign of a potential hoard. Not always - some are just hidden and unguarded, other places aren't full of treasure but are guarded for other reasons . . . but the odds are in favor of loot behind loot-protecting defenses.
Hoards. Intelligent or otherwise treasure-hoarding monsters tend to have the biggest hoards. They may in fact exceed the dedicated treasuries - but they fall to second on this list because the amount of treasure can vary a lot more. The smarter, and the more powerful, the monsters, the bigger the hoard. It's almost directly linear because of the roll bonuses and penalties included in the treasure system I use (see DF21: Megadungeons.) These will be protected, and may not be with the monster itself - the loot might be hidden nearby. Do not expect an intelligent monster to carry its loot with it unless that's the only way to protect it. Sufficiently nasty monsters might feel free to leave their treasure out in the open, and even wander off away from it without fear of theft - knowing that the other dungeon dwellers won't molest it out of fear of the consequences. Most others will either need to stay close by, or leave it guarded - much like a dedicated treasury, with traps, concealment, and possibly guards.
Finding the "lair" of an intelligent or otherwise treasure-hoarding monster is a good way to increase your odds of finding loot. Expect that they'll want to keep you as far away from their loot as possible in many cases.
Unguarded, Hidden Treasure. Some "empty" rooms and "looted" areas have loot. It's a relatively small proportion of them - less than 1 in 6 of them initially, and many have been looted over the decade of play. But one way to secure treasure is to stash it somewhere that people will either avoid, or just bypass. Expect such to be carefully hidden, and hard to find - simply wandering around with See Secrets making Per checks isn't likely to turn it up . . . although it's a good start. What you can find will vary, but generally is small compared to guarded loot.
Believe it or not, "empty" rooms with unguarded but hidden loot will generally be more valuable than wandering monsters or patrols out looking for, or responding, to trouble.
Wandering Monsters. These are the least loot-worthy foes and have the lowest amount of treasure as a group. This has come up pretty consistantly since we started playing, with players new to the group and old, veteran and new to game. It's the idea that adventurers should welcome wandering monsters, as they'll be something to fight and have treasure. This is almost 100% false. Occasionally, some wandering monsters will be intelligent, armed foes that can be defeated and looted for their gear. But they're the minority. The majority of Felltower wandering monsters are unintelligent predators or scavengers - rat swarms, stirges, puddings, oozes, spiders, and similar nasties. None of them carry loot and not a person in the game world is willing to fork over money for their remains. Some wandering monsters are made of valuable bits, but you're taking a high-risk low-reward approach here; fine if you just want enough XP to hit the threshold for low-point PCs but even then the odds aren't in favor of this working out for you.
Even when intelligent, armed foes "wander" up, they're likely the sharp edge of a larger group, they usually don't fight to the death, and they almost never carry their loot with them into combat.* They're the "wandering monster" you least want to encounter unless your plan is "let the enemy set the objective." The PCs have often done exactly this, but it's always ended up with a bigger fight, for less gains, than penetrating to a superior loot location would gain them.
Good luck, and good looting. And stop banging on doors hoping to attract treasure-bearing monsters. It's a shell game.
* Like Colonel Bat Guano.
Monday, November 27, 2023
More notes from Session 187
More notes from last session, DF Session 187.
Foundry VTT GURPS Package Problems:
- Silver-coated weapons do x1.5, not x2 like solid silver weapons, to werewolves. x1.5 is not an option on the wounding screen. Couple that with x1.5 for cutting and I need to be doing x2.25 . . . not an option. I ended up having to figure the damage and then add 10% to wounding. Annoying.
- it's nice that we can set certain statuses - reeling, fatigued - to automatically show up. It's bad that they show up for NPCs so PCs can see at a glance how harmed a foe is, even when they shouldn't know. I don't think I can fix that.
I kind of wish I had time to learn to code well enough to go fix this, but I have a lot on my plate professionally and personally that doesn't leave the room I'd need to put the work in that would help. Learning two other skills simulatenously as it is has been tricky enough.
Advantages
Regeneration seems powerful. 1 hp/second is 100 points. It's almost irrelevant in combat in DF. In AD&D, a troll healing 3 hp/round is massive, as rounds can go by without it getting hit and HP range from 12-54, average 33 HP. That's healing 9% of its HP per round. 1 hp per second in DF? Damage ranges from 2d-4d+ per blow, you can get hit with multiple blows per second, and even HP 20 is only 120 injury from instant death. It can take 10 seconds to undo one hit's worth of damage.
It's basically just one more thing for a GM to track.
Speaking of Regeneration, Kevin S asked if a troll werewolf would not regenerate from silver, fire, or acid, or it would regenerate from all of them. The answer is: find out when you fight them.
Power Ups
Hanari's player asked about buying Breakfall, but DF and DFRPG don't use techniques. He did find Tuck and Roll! in DFD: Thieves. I think they're both appropriate Power-Ups for Martial Artists. That said, I'm not sure I'd allow it as it conflicts very heavily with Catfall. In fact, cost-wise, it probably makes Catfall a poor choice. I'd rather not use it and essentially undermine a simpler but more expensive advantage; especially since it would also require a roll and a margin-of-success mechanic instead of a simple yes/no effect. I can see allowing Catfall for Martial Artists as a Power-Up.
I think our Bard will eventually want this, which is probably not something I want to deal with:
Artifact Lore. I think I just don't want to deal with this in Felltower. I'll constantly be rattling off values of items, even in combat (it's instant and on sight), list exact coin amounts in glimpsed hoards, explaining the powers of magic items which mystically everyone who can hear what I tell the bard knows (or he'll say it as a free action on his turn anyway), etc. It's not very old school, and DF Felltower aspires to an old school feel with new school rules. We don't have Analyze Magic spells and sages for nothing. I don't mind a bard recognizing storied artifacts, but that might need to be something that takes more time and closer examination.
Foundry VTT GURPS Package Problems:
- Silver-coated weapons do x1.5, not x2 like solid silver weapons, to werewolves. x1.5 is not an option on the wounding screen. Couple that with x1.5 for cutting and I need to be doing x2.25 . . . not an option. I ended up having to figure the damage and then add 10% to wounding. Annoying.
- it's nice that we can set certain statuses - reeling, fatigued - to automatically show up. It's bad that they show up for NPCs so PCs can see at a glance how harmed a foe is, even when they shouldn't know. I don't think I can fix that.
I kind of wish I had time to learn to code well enough to go fix this, but I have a lot on my plate professionally and personally that doesn't leave the room I'd need to put the work in that would help. Learning two other skills simulatenously as it is has been tricky enough.
Advantages
Regeneration seems powerful. 1 hp/second is 100 points. It's almost irrelevant in combat in DF. In AD&D, a troll healing 3 hp/round is massive, as rounds can go by without it getting hit and HP range from 12-54, average 33 HP. That's healing 9% of its HP per round. 1 hp per second in DF? Damage ranges from 2d-4d+ per blow, you can get hit with multiple blows per second, and even HP 20 is only 120 injury from instant death. It can take 10 seconds to undo one hit's worth of damage.
It's basically just one more thing for a GM to track.
Speaking of Regeneration, Kevin S asked if a troll werewolf would not regenerate from silver, fire, or acid, or it would regenerate from all of them. The answer is: find out when you fight them.
Power Ups
Hanari's player asked about buying Breakfall, but DF and DFRPG don't use techniques. He did find Tuck and Roll! in DFD: Thieves. I think they're both appropriate Power-Ups for Martial Artists. That said, I'm not sure I'd allow it as it conflicts very heavily with Catfall. In fact, cost-wise, it probably makes Catfall a poor choice. I'd rather not use it and essentially undermine a simpler but more expensive advantage; especially since it would also require a roll and a margin-of-success mechanic instead of a simple yes/no effect. I can see allowing Catfall for Martial Artists as a Power-Up.
I think our Bard will eventually want this, which is probably not something I want to deal with:
Artifact Lore. I think I just don't want to deal with this in Felltower. I'll constantly be rattling off values of items, even in combat (it's instant and on sight), list exact coin amounts in glimpsed hoards, explaining the powers of magic items which mystically everyone who can hear what I tell the bard knows (or he'll say it as a free action on his turn anyway), etc. It's not very old school, and DF Felltower aspires to an old school feel with new school rules. We don't have Analyze Magic spells and sages for nothing. I don't mind a bard recognizing storied artifacts, but that might need to be something that takes more time and closer examination.
Sunday, November 26, 2023
Revised DRFPG Shield Rush
Let's fix shield slams for DF Felltower.
A Shield rush is a slam with a shield (NOT a buckler) does slam damage, plus 1 point per point of shield DB, and the opponent subtracts 1 point per point of shield DB from their attack.
Got that? If you have ST 13 (1d thrust) and a Medium Shield (DB 2) you slam for 1d-2, +2 = 1d+1. Your ST 13 opponent does 1d-2, -2 = 1d-4.
I find that iffy for a couple of reasons:
- your shield should help, but I don't see why it should help based on size. Weight, construction, etc. yes, but just size? Eh.
- I don't see why your shield should provide DR for you based on size.
- I don't see why your shield makes you more likely to knock a foe down or overrun them - remember, the one who inflicts less damage can fall, and automatically falls if the ratio is 2:1 or more.
Here is what I prefer:
- Your shield provides DR 3 to you from the slam damage.
- Using a shield adds +2 to slam damage, +3 if spiked or dwarven, +4 if both.
- You opponent inflicts damage normally. If your opponent tries to block the slam and the DB of the shield matters, it provides DR 3 for them, too.
And that's that. You still can't shield rush with bucklers.
Oh, and by the way, shield rush, shield bash, whatever - you can still Block with your shield. Having consulted with shield users, it's odd that they can and can't in circumstances that seem otherwise the same.
Editing Later: Optionally, you can allow both bucklers and shields to shield rush. In this case, apply the damage from a shield rush with a buckler to the attacker's hand (since you can't as easily brace it with your body), that of the shield using attacker to the body (since you brace your arm and shield with the body)
A Shield rush is a slam with a shield (NOT a buckler) does slam damage, plus 1 point per point of shield DB, and the opponent subtracts 1 point per point of shield DB from their attack.
Got that? If you have ST 13 (1d thrust) and a Medium Shield (DB 2) you slam for 1d-2, +2 = 1d+1. Your ST 13 opponent does 1d-2, -2 = 1d-4.
I find that iffy for a couple of reasons:
- your shield should help, but I don't see why it should help based on size. Weight, construction, etc. yes, but just size? Eh.
- I don't see why your shield should provide DR for you based on size.
- I don't see why your shield makes you more likely to knock a foe down or overrun them - remember, the one who inflicts less damage can fall, and automatically falls if the ratio is 2:1 or more.
Here is what I prefer:
- Your shield provides DR 3 to you from the slam damage.
- Using a shield adds +2 to slam damage, +3 if spiked or dwarven, +4 if both.
- You opponent inflicts damage normally. If your opponent tries to block the slam and the DB of the shield matters, it provides DR 3 for them, too.
And that's that. You still can't shield rush with bucklers.
Oh, and by the way, shield rush, shield bash, whatever - you can still Block with your shield. Having consulted with shield users, it's odd that they can and can't in circumstances that seem otherwise the same.
Editing Later: Optionally, you can allow both bucklers and shields to shield rush. In this case, apply the damage from a shield rush with a buckler to the attacker's hand (since you can't as easily brace it with your body), that of the shield using attacker to the body (since you brace your arm and shield with the body)
Saturday, November 25, 2023
DF Session 187, Felltower 125 - Fighting the Werewolves
This is finishing up a fight started in a previous session.
Actual Date: November 24th, 2023
Game Date: October 29th, 2023
Weather: Light rainy, cool.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (298 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (297 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (290 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (298 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (297 points)
Urbaine Fabre, half-elf bard (298 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf martial artist (250 points)
We picked up in the middle of a fight with werewolves.
The PCs rushed forward, finishing off the badly wounded werewolves in front of them and moving into the room ahead.
Vlad saw three werewolves down the hallway were he'd seen a wounded one fleeing. He saw that one and two others - a human and a werewolf.
Persistance and Thor rushed over, only to find a Grease spell across the hallway. Persistance fell, and ended up crawling across the floor to reach the enemy. Thor slowly worked his way across the floor, blocking a fireball from a wand held by the human! Persistance took a couple of fireballs himself, getting badly burned and lit on fire despite his armor.
Another werewolf attacked from behind the PCs, and reached Chop before Hanari attacked him. Hannari slashed at him with his kamas, Duncan put 2-3 6d Stone Missile spells into him, and Vlad doubled back to try and hit him with an arrow. It took a while, but they eventually put him down, but not before sinking his canines into Hanari's left leg.
Meanwhile on the other end Chop eventually put Resist Fire on Persistance, Urbaine used Rapier Wit to stun a werewolf, and Thor used his sword to ct them up a bit.
Just as they were about to break through against the werewolves, Duncan put Flight on Hanari. Hanari flew up and into the fray and helped end it quickly. The two werewolves went down, and the "regular human" with the wand bounced Thor off of him when he was hit with a shield rush. He turned into a werewolf, dropping the wand and slashing away with his claws. Hanari cut him a few times from behind and Thor from the front and he dropped.
Chop went around and pressed silver coins into each and every eye (so, 16 sp) and Hanari gave all of them a finishing slash with his silvered kama. They looted the bodies and headed back home.
Back in town they paid $100 per injured person to cleanse their wounds from the werewolves, since they carry their curse in their bite and claws.
Notes:
- I need to do a revision of the shield rushing rules. We've used the rules as written because our new player knows them by heart, but I think they're actually kinda bogus. I'll explain in another post what I dislike and how I'll run them. I'm 99% sure Thor's shield is a buckler, not a shield, so we can add "knows them by heart but doesn't know Doug's PC's equipment by heart." Forgivable, but annoying to have yet another example of "forgot the rules that hurt me."
- Does it take 1 second and concentration for a werewolf to change forms? Eh, probably by the rules. Here? No. I don't think it's a big deal.
- Vlad wanted to take prisoners, again. No one listened, and I'm not sure why. Taking prisoners is tough when it's easier slightly delayed execution, or being brought back to town and killed there.
- Most of the discussion about the wand was about selling it and its value, and the importantance of getting the user before he used up more of the value of the treasure. Not, you know, the value of a Wand of Fireballs as an item. Same with the potions found a while back - luckily potions has a standard sale value so they're at best worth $100.
- XP was:
4 xp loot
0 xp exploration
1 xp first time on level 2
1 xp first time on level 3
1 xp first time on level 4
7 xp each.
No MVP on the final session because it was just 2 1/2 hours of a fight.
XP was good but it took 2 1/2 sessions for it. Had the party done the same stuff, but left after each session, I think the XP would have been 2 xp, 5 xp, and 5 xp. So pushing for maximum bonuses and delving until they found lots of loot really didn't pay off in a meta-game sense. Not that I want people delving solely on maximizing XP but it's a little frustrating to spend multiple sessions in the dungeon for sub-maximal gains, and then hear about how there needs to be easier areas to "level up."
Actual Date: November 24th, 2023
Game Date: October 29th, 2023
Weather: Light rainy, cool.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (298 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (297 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (290 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (298 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (297 points)
Urbaine Fabre, half-elf bard (298 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf martial artist (250 points)
We picked up in the middle of a fight with werewolves.
The PCs rushed forward, finishing off the badly wounded werewolves in front of them and moving into the room ahead.
Vlad saw three werewolves down the hallway were he'd seen a wounded one fleeing. He saw that one and two others - a human and a werewolf.
Persistance and Thor rushed over, only to find a Grease spell across the hallway. Persistance fell, and ended up crawling across the floor to reach the enemy. Thor slowly worked his way across the floor, blocking a fireball from a wand held by the human! Persistance took a couple of fireballs himself, getting badly burned and lit on fire despite his armor.
Another werewolf attacked from behind the PCs, and reached Chop before Hanari attacked him. Hannari slashed at him with his kamas, Duncan put 2-3 6d Stone Missile spells into him, and Vlad doubled back to try and hit him with an arrow. It took a while, but they eventually put him down, but not before sinking his canines into Hanari's left leg.
Meanwhile on the other end Chop eventually put Resist Fire on Persistance, Urbaine used Rapier Wit to stun a werewolf, and Thor used his sword to ct them up a bit.
Just as they were about to break through against the werewolves, Duncan put Flight on Hanari. Hanari flew up and into the fray and helped end it quickly. The two werewolves went down, and the "regular human" with the wand bounced Thor off of him when he was hit with a shield rush. He turned into a werewolf, dropping the wand and slashing away with his claws. Hanari cut him a few times from behind and Thor from the front and he dropped.
Chop went around and pressed silver coins into each and every eye (so, 16 sp) and Hanari gave all of them a finishing slash with his silvered kama. They looted the bodies and headed back home.
Back in town they paid $100 per injured person to cleanse their wounds from the werewolves, since they carry their curse in their bite and claws.
Notes:
- I need to do a revision of the shield rushing rules. We've used the rules as written because our new player knows them by heart, but I think they're actually kinda bogus. I'll explain in another post what I dislike and how I'll run them. I'm 99% sure Thor's shield is a buckler, not a shield, so we can add "knows them by heart but doesn't know Doug's PC's equipment by heart." Forgivable, but annoying to have yet another example of "forgot the rules that hurt me."
- Does it take 1 second and concentration for a werewolf to change forms? Eh, probably by the rules. Here? No. I don't think it's a big deal.
- Vlad wanted to take prisoners, again. No one listened, and I'm not sure why. Taking prisoners is tough when it's easier slightly delayed execution, or being brought back to town and killed there.
- Most of the discussion about the wand was about selling it and its value, and the importantance of getting the user before he used up more of the value of the treasure. Not, you know, the value of a Wand of Fireballs as an item. Same with the potions found a while back - luckily potions has a standard sale value so they're at best worth $100.
- XP was:
4 xp loot
0 xp exploration
1 xp first time on level 2
1 xp first time on level 3
1 xp first time on level 4
7 xp each.
No MVP on the final session because it was just 2 1/2 hours of a fight.
XP was good but it took 2 1/2 sessions for it. Had the party done the same stuff, but left after each session, I think the XP would have been 2 xp, 5 xp, and 5 xp. So pushing for maximum bonuses and delving until they found lots of loot really didn't pay off in a meta-game sense. Not that I want people delving solely on maximizing XP but it's a little frustrating to spend multiple sessions in the dungeon for sub-maximal gains, and then hear about how there needs to be easier areas to "level up."
Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Monday, November 20, 2023
Uniform Range and Acc for Missile spells?
Would it harm anything to make all of the missile spells range 40/80, Acc 2? Even Curse-Missile?
I'm thinking no. It slightly nerfs a few (Lightning, with its 50/100 Acc 3, for one) but smoothes it all out in terms of rules since we'll never need to look anything up. Acc 2, 40/80, effects as listed.
You could potentially sweeten up one of the weaker missile spells - like ice dagger - with more Acc. I'm inclined to sweeten that one up with a (2) armor divisor, but whatever, you can note that in the spell description instead of needing a table.
Unless my players have a reasonable objection, I will make this change to the basic Acc and Range of Missile spells for DF Felltower.
I'm thinking no. It slightly nerfs a few (Lightning, with its 50/100 Acc 3, for one) but smoothes it all out in terms of rules since we'll never need to look anything up. Acc 2, 40/80, effects as listed.
You could potentially sweeten up one of the weaker missile spells - like ice dagger - with more Acc. I'm inclined to sweeten that one up with a (2) armor divisor, but whatever, you can note that in the spell description instead of needing a table.
Unless my players have a reasonable objection, I will make this change to the basic Acc and Range of Missile spells for DF Felltower.
Sunday, November 19, 2023
Missile spells in DF Felltower - Are they effective?
Combats in Felltower very, very often feature Missiles spells. Probably 50/50 regular and explosive. Combats in Felltower often feature table discussion about how Missile spells are underpowered, hard to hit with, too easy to defend against, not cost-effective, and really unfair to wizards because they should be able to do some damage-doing effect every turn.
Heh.
I'm totally serious about both. We see a lot of Missile spell use. It's almost every combat.
We do have some or all of that discussion of Missile spells, even as people are using them.
It's odd but true.
I think the "Missile spells are weak and not cost-effective" opinion has a lot of validity to it. I don't think it's true in Felltower.
Underpowered: Missile spells do 1d base damage per 1 point of energy, or per 2 points if explosive. A 3d spell does about as much damage as a front-line fighter's hit, but often less. It's a little weak compared to fighters. In DF Felltower, this is the same . . . but I feel like it's mitigated by two factors - the ability to hit multiple targets or single targets with the same spell (since Explosive spells aren't a different spell), and that they are often coupled with an effect melee weapons don't get - electrical stunning, armor divisors, burning, or even high-damage impaling. It's not a 1:1 matchup but I don't think they should be, nevermind need to be for fairness.
Speaking of underpowered, the rules for blast effects for explosives in plain GURPS (and even DFRPG) are a bit underwhelming. DF Felltower makes all explosive spells area 3 (so diameter 5). Damage in the center hex is full, in the next ring out it's 2/3rds, the third ring 1/3rd. That makes big explosive spells less fratricidal and smaller ones have more utility in hitting an area. It's also faster to play.
Hard to Hit With: Hitting with a Missile spell takes an attack roll, which is a DX-based skill, and wizards aren't always good with those. But DF takes care of that in two ways. One, even wizards routinely have a 14 or 15 skill in it. And by the book, you can buy the Psychic Guidance perk to let you use your spell skill instead as your attack skill. DF Felltower uses Mystic Guidance, instead, which rather gives you +1 per level of your spellcasting talent as a plus to your attack roll. I just find that a better solution, but either way, in DF Felltower it's only hard to hit with missiles you don't put some of your available spellcasting perks into improving with.
Too Easy to Defend Against: This one I just disagree with. They're not harder or easier to deal with than any other missile, and the explosive ones are usually thrown to hit with the blast effect so it's hard to avoid damage altogether. Just no to this one.
Not Cost Effective: In standard GURPS Magic, it's 1 for 1d and 2 for 1d explosive. You can save 1+ energy per spell for a high effective skill. A Magery 6 wizard can throw an 18d spell for 18 or 36 points . . . with skill 15 that's 17 and 35, with skill 20 that's 16 and 34. In DF Felltower, it's 1 for 1d or 2 for 1d explosive as standard, but you can subtract for your effective skill each turn. That 18d spell costs 15 or 33 at skill 15, 12 and 30 at skill 20. Still expensive, but much more doable. A 9d - the cap for Magery 3, and still a very nasty attack - would cost 6 and 15 or 3 and 12 for skill 15 or 20, respectively.
The damage you can cause to a packed formation of foes with effectively 9d/6d/3d attacks, especially with a Fireball (3+ ignites fires, 10+ ignites everything on a target, and average damage will do 10+ at all three bands), is terrific. It's not going to cause all of your foes to char and die . . . but it can make all of them combat-ineffective. Not bad for 12 or 15 points, given that most save-or-die type spells cost around 10 per target and are resisted.
Can't Do Something Every Turn: Well, fair enough. It takes 3 seconds to pump up a spell to the most powerful level, and 1 second to throw. So they're 4 second spells. Seems a bit much . . . or does it? Personally I disagree with this one. I don't think you need to be able to do damage every secod in order to be combat-effective. Wizards are critical for combat - ask any foe who confronts Missile Shield or Levitation or Panic spells with no way to counter them. They just aren't pure damage engines. The Heroic Spellcaster advantage from Delvers to Grow can help make them so . . . but I feel like the changes I've made make that less necessary. The author may disagree, I'd have to ask, but I think the many changes we made for DF Felltower make for better Missile spells without needing to add this advantage.
I don't think you need to deal damage every second to matter; I actually think you gain a lot of non-combat ability and combat flexibility by choosing to use magic but can't also effectively deal damage every second.
And I think the constant use of Missile spells in my game says something about the value of them, modified as they are.
Heh.
I'm totally serious about both. We see a lot of Missile spell use. It's almost every combat.
We do have some or all of that discussion of Missile spells, even as people are using them.
It's odd but true.
I think the "Missile spells are weak and not cost-effective" opinion has a lot of validity to it. I don't think it's true in Felltower.
Underpowered: Missile spells do 1d base damage per 1 point of energy, or per 2 points if explosive. A 3d spell does about as much damage as a front-line fighter's hit, but often less. It's a little weak compared to fighters. In DF Felltower, this is the same . . . but I feel like it's mitigated by two factors - the ability to hit multiple targets or single targets with the same spell (since Explosive spells aren't a different spell), and that they are often coupled with an effect melee weapons don't get - electrical stunning, armor divisors, burning, or even high-damage impaling. It's not a 1:1 matchup but I don't think they should be, nevermind need to be for fairness.
Speaking of underpowered, the rules for blast effects for explosives in plain GURPS (and even DFRPG) are a bit underwhelming. DF Felltower makes all explosive spells area 3 (so diameter 5). Damage in the center hex is full, in the next ring out it's 2/3rds, the third ring 1/3rd. That makes big explosive spells less fratricidal and smaller ones have more utility in hitting an area. It's also faster to play.
Hard to Hit With: Hitting with a Missile spell takes an attack roll, which is a DX-based skill, and wizards aren't always good with those. But DF takes care of that in two ways. One, even wizards routinely have a 14 or 15 skill in it. And by the book, you can buy the Psychic Guidance perk to let you use your spell skill instead as your attack skill. DF Felltower uses Mystic Guidance, instead, which rather gives you +1 per level of your spellcasting talent as a plus to your attack roll. I just find that a better solution, but either way, in DF Felltower it's only hard to hit with missiles you don't put some of your available spellcasting perks into improving with.
Too Easy to Defend Against: This one I just disagree with. They're not harder or easier to deal with than any other missile, and the explosive ones are usually thrown to hit with the blast effect so it's hard to avoid damage altogether. Just no to this one.
Not Cost Effective: In standard GURPS Magic, it's 1 for 1d and 2 for 1d explosive. You can save 1+ energy per spell for a high effective skill. A Magery 6 wizard can throw an 18d spell for 18 or 36 points . . . with skill 15 that's 17 and 35, with skill 20 that's 16 and 34. In DF Felltower, it's 1 for 1d or 2 for 1d explosive as standard, but you can subtract for your effective skill each turn. That 18d spell costs 15 or 33 at skill 15, 12 and 30 at skill 20. Still expensive, but much more doable. A 9d - the cap for Magery 3, and still a very nasty attack - would cost 6 and 15 or 3 and 12 for skill 15 or 20, respectively.
The damage you can cause to a packed formation of foes with effectively 9d/6d/3d attacks, especially with a Fireball (3+ ignites fires, 10+ ignites everything on a target, and average damage will do 10+ at all three bands), is terrific. It's not going to cause all of your foes to char and die . . . but it can make all of them combat-ineffective. Not bad for 12 or 15 points, given that most save-or-die type spells cost around 10 per target and are resisted.
Can't Do Something Every Turn: Well, fair enough. It takes 3 seconds to pump up a spell to the most powerful level, and 1 second to throw. So they're 4 second spells. Seems a bit much . . . or does it? Personally I disagree with this one. I don't think you need to be able to do damage every secod in order to be combat-effective. Wizards are critical for combat - ask any foe who confronts Missile Shield or Levitation or Panic spells with no way to counter them. They just aren't pure damage engines. The Heroic Spellcaster advantage from Delvers to Grow can help make them so . . . but I feel like the changes I've made make that less necessary. The author may disagree, I'd have to ask, but I think the many changes we made for DF Felltower make for better Missile spells without needing to add this advantage.
I don't think you need to deal damage every second to matter; I actually think you gain a lot of non-combat ability and combat flexibility by choosing to use magic but can't also effectively deal damage every second.
And I think the constant use of Missile spells in my game says something about the value of them, modified as they are.
Saturday, November 18, 2023
Addendum to the DF Felltower Explosive Missile Spells FAQ
I've added this to my explosive spells FAQ:
- While full cover does block an explosive spell, it has to be strong enough to resist the spell (sliding paper doors, for example, wouldn't help much), otherwise it merely acts as DR. A target's body doesn't provide cover unless it completely covers the potentially shielded victim. For example, a child or pet covered by a prone adult, or anything beyond a dragon larger than the radius of the fireball so nothing can "leak" past. Generally, assume everything in the covered hexes gets hit.
- While full cover does block an explosive spell, it has to be strong enough to resist the spell (sliding paper doors, for example, wouldn't help much), otherwise it merely acts as DR. A target's body doesn't provide cover unless it completely covers the potentially shielded victim. For example, a child or pet covered by a prone adult, or anything beyond a dragon larger than the radius of the fireball so nothing can "leak" past. Generally, assume everything in the covered hexes gets hit.
Friday, November 17, 2023
Random Links for 11/17/23
Random Stuff For Friday!
- This is months old, but still. It's a (very) short film on Fiore de'i Liberi, an Italian fencing master.
"FIORE"
It's well choreographed and solid attention to historical detail, as seen in this behind-the-scenes which is almost as long as the film. It's a shame they couldn't make a longer feature.
It has that Black Angel feel of, I wish this was longer because it's all so good.
- I'm a sucker for Space: 1889 and Cloudship battles.
- Underwater magic items for GURPS DF! The underwater breathing one should be admistered . . . differently, though, in Professor Farnsworth's opinion.
- Dark Greyhawk. I have to admit this is pretty cool.
Dark Greyhawk
- It's been too damn long since I played Chrononauts. I used to play it at school with students, with my gamers, and with my family. Fun stuff. I have the American history one, too, but it's not as fun for whatever reason.
- This is months old, but still. It's a (very) short film on Fiore de'i Liberi, an Italian fencing master.
"FIORE"
It's well choreographed and solid attention to historical detail, as seen in this behind-the-scenes which is almost as long as the film. It's a shame they couldn't make a longer feature.
It has that Black Angel feel of, I wish this was longer because it's all so good.
- I'm a sucker for Space: 1889 and Cloudship battles.
- Underwater magic items for GURPS DF! The underwater breathing one should be admistered . . . differently, though, in Professor Farnsworth's opinion.
- Dark Greyhawk. I have to admit this is pretty cool.
Dark Greyhawk
- It's been too damn long since I played Chrononauts. I used to play it at school with students, with my gamers, and with my family. Fun stuff. I have the American history one, too, but it's not as fun for whatever reason.
Thursday, November 16, 2023
What ends a Curse?
The spell Curse has an endng clause:
"lasting until some notable success is rolled . . . but any critical success suffices."
I'm thinking of possibly lowering the bar a bit, potentially making it less lasting but more combat-effective.
What if the Curse ends on:
- any critical success
- any successful hit by the cursed fighter that could cause damage if the defense fails
It's a bit of an expansion, but it would mean the spell at the -1 level is very combat effective - you've essentially neutralized the next attack by the victim. I'm not sure about this - it might a little weak, especially for a more powerful Curse. But it also might make the spell more useful . . . something I'm thinking about as we see a lot of these in play these days.
"lasting until some notable success is rolled . . . but any critical success suffices."
I'm thinking of possibly lowering the bar a bit, potentially making it less lasting but more combat-effective.
What if the Curse ends on:
- any critical success
- any successful hit by the cursed fighter that could cause damage if the defense fails
It's a bit of an expansion, but it would mean the spell at the -1 level is very combat effective - you've essentially neutralized the next attack by the victim. I'm not sure about this - it might a little weak, especially for a more powerful Curse. But it also might make the spell more useful . . . something I'm thinking about as we see a lot of these in play these days.
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865)
I broke down and got Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865) when it went on sale for Black Friday at GOG.
I fired it up and played around a bit.
- it's really attractive
- the default font is tiny. I was sitting about 15" from my 15" laptop and needed to squint
- the tutorial is pretty helpful
- this is pretty much the game I wanted when I was sitting around playing SSI wargames like Antietam and Gettysburg: the Turning Point.
- I'm still concerned about the A.I., since I'd rather play as the Union than the Confederacy and I think a solid A.I. is needed to make that fair.
- this is going to suck hours and hours out of my life, help!
Just kidding, don't help. I'm reserving play for when I have a bit of time this weekend. I do have some other goals besides winning the Civil War for Mr. Lincoln. But I will spare some time to play and post about it!
I fired it up and played around a bit.
- it's really attractive
- the default font is tiny. I was sitting about 15" from my 15" laptop and needed to squint
- the tutorial is pretty helpful
- this is pretty much the game I wanted when I was sitting around playing SSI wargames like Antietam and Gettysburg: the Turning Point.
- I'm still concerned about the A.I., since I'd rather play as the Union than the Confederacy and I think a solid A.I. is needed to make that fair.
- this is going to suck hours and hours out of my life, help!
Just kidding, don't help. I'm reserving play for when I have a bit of time this weekend. I do have some other goals besides winning the Civil War for Mr. Lincoln. But I will spare some time to play and post about it!
Tuesday, November 14, 2023
Next Game set & Ruling from Last Session
Looks like our next game of Felltower will be Friday, November 24th.
The plan is a short session to finish the fight and then - hopefully - they'll finally go back to town.
One ruling of note from last game:
- Does a foe with Loyalty on them still count as a foe for cost multiplication purposes? No, in that we don't cost Loyalty based on hostility in my revised system. You can cast it temporarily, and then order them not to resist a lasting version, though.
That's it for today. Not a lot of rulings to make based on the previous session.
The plan is a short session to finish the fight and then - hopefully - they'll finally go back to town.
One ruling of note from last game:
- Does a foe with Loyalty on them still count as a foe for cost multiplication purposes? No, in that we don't cost Loyalty based on hostility in my revised system. You can cast it temporarily, and then order them not to resist a lasting version, though.
That's it for today. Not a lot of rulings to make based on the previous session.
Monday, November 13, 2023
DF Session 186, Felltower 125 - Return to Felltower Part II - Gnolls & A Level Too Far?
This is a continuation of the session started on 10/29/2023.
Actual Date: November 11th, 2023
Game Date: October 29th, 2023
Weather: Light rainy, cool.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (298 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (297 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (290 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (298 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (297 points)
Urbaine Fabre, half-elf bard (298 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf martial artist (250 points)
We picked up midfight. The PCs were caught, halfway between falling back to hold the hallway to the stairs and holding the hallway ahead. A dozen gnolls charged in, wielding shields and morninstars.
The gnolls rushed towards the PCs, and the front two were quickly cut down by a combination of an arrow from Vlad and blows from Thor and Persistance - and both rolled 17s on Dodges, putting them down even as they got cut apart. Urbaine followed up with a Panic spell to block the hallway. The gnolls kept rushing in, but more than half of the remainder panicked from the spell and ran off. The remaining four charged in.
They didn't last long; they managed to rush through the wide-open "front line" of the PCs. A rash of critical failures frustrated the PCs here. Persistance swatted a gnoll and then dropped his flail with an 18. He rolled a 17 when attempting to quick-ready it, and knocked it across the floor ahead of him. A gnoll bypassed him and hit him twice on the skull with a morningstar, severely wounding him and knocking him cold.
Thor swung around chopped at the gnolls as another rushed Urbaine and slammed him back, crippling his arm. Hannari engaged that one, and sliced him up a few times. Vlad shot him with an arrow and Urbaine stabbed him, as well, eventually putting him down. Thor broke several gnoll shields and carved up the gnolls carrying them. In short order, the PCs killed the four gnolls, but not without lots of damage. As the last gnoll was going down, Duncan threw a 6d Stone Missile and rolled an 18 and hit Thor from behind, wounding him heavily. The fleeing gnolls got away, although the PCs heard a different voice barking out angrily down the hallway.
They decided to cut their losses and end the fight there. Duncan used Create Earth and Earth to Stone to create a pair of walls to block the hallways. He left a small hole in the one facing the gnolls in case they needed to shoot them.
They finished off the wounded gnolls, looted them of a bunch of coins and their remaining shields and their weapons, and headed back up to level 2.
There, they recovered a little FP with scrolls of Lend Energy and began to explore. They found their map indicated a blockage but there wasn't one, but decided to check some rooms near where their map indicated stirges.
The group found a couple of hallways lined with rooms - more rooms than their map indicated, many of which had notes on them that didn't match the actual contents.
Thor bashed the doors open, and using See Secrets they searched them all. They were mostly empty, but they found:
- a secret compartment, long overlooked, with five potions - Duncan froze his tongue taste-testing one . . . they turned out to be 3 Liquid Ice, 1 Perception, and 1 Fire Fountain. (Someone said, "Saleable loot" but I pointed out they're all $100 base value in town, not list price, per DFRPG Exploits, p. 76)
- an old, water-filled pit. Sending a servant down, and then Vlad when the servant got killed after grabbing . . . something. Seek Earth detected steel . . . and it turned out there were just bones and rusted old spikes. There was a human skeleton, in old bits, and the skeleton of a long-dead razor fish.
- a trapped chest full of rocks. They disarmed the traps and dragged the chest out and bashed it apart only to find the rocks. "Why trap a box full of rocks?" Because you don't trap the chest you actually use, you trap the trap.
- an empty old small wooden chest, which they took as loot despite its poor condition.
- an old child-sized broken cot.
- and a whole lot of nothing.
It was getting late, and they skirted the stirges and headed to check the "Orc Hole."
The group made their way their, bashing down doors and checking places as they went. In one area near the base of the pillboxes, they found a room with 18 2-man bunks. A second door in that room led to a common area . . . full of dead women and kids, all goblins of some kind, long dead and dessicated. A few near the door were clearly cut down with bladed weaponry, but a few just behind the door were not. The corners, especially the far two, were packed with bodies . . . there were a few dozen. They showed signs of having choked to death, with hands over mouths or holding throats, kids under females. The inside of the door was badly scratched, as if if they tried to claw their way out. Gruesome.
They headed from there straight to the orc hole, insisting as they went that it was the main goal, they were just about out of time, and it was important to not get distracted. They immediately turned aside to check out some stairs on their map, from the wholly meta reason that if they went down and explored a bit they'd get +1 XP. So they did that . . . and walked straight into an attempted ambush by a trio of werewolves!
Lucky for them, the sharp-eared Chop and Vlad heard them coming and prevented surprise. Hannari has a silver-coated kama and Vlad some silver-coated arrows, and their fighters do enormous damage, so they managed to wound and chase off one werewolf and put another one down. Naturally, Persistance dropped his flail on a critical failure.
We had to cut the session there, with a total of five werewolves attacking them, because of real world hard stop time constraints.
Notes:
- So much for not ending the dungeon. It's amusing because had they just left after they found their loot, they'd have sufficient loot to get 4 xp and +2 for two new level touches, for 6 each. Instead they're spending another session in the dungeon.
And so much for the exploration bonus. The PCs have gone to all of the "easy" levels for +1 XP, so that's all done. They don't get exploration XP for mapped areas. Urbaine said they shouldn't have gotten the map, as they'd get exploration XP. Kind of. I'd delete the maps entirely, and let them explore, but not count empty, looted areas as exploration . . . and not allow player knowledge about the levels. So it's not a realistic option, and even more stupidly gamey than "let's do one room on level 3."
- Werewolves are pretty tough, but 4d+10 is also really tough.
- Vlad wanted a gnoll prisoner to take home. The plan was to bring him to town and question him there, after hiring someone to cast Borrow Language. The issues with this were legion. Getting a wounded gnoll home, getting it into town (probably requires a bribe), hiring the someone, questioning the gnoll, and then probably killing the guy all in town. Not impossible, but literally getting away with murder would cost resources. It's only legal to loot Felltower and kill to do it due to a legal loophole. You can't murder folks you found in Felltower in town.
- MVP was Persistance as a consulation prize for a long list of 17s and 18s whenever he tried to do anything.
Actual Date: November 11th, 2023
Game Date: October 29th, 2023
Weather: Light rainy, cool.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (298 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (297 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (290 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (298 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (297 points)
Urbaine Fabre, half-elf bard (298 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf martial artist (250 points)
We picked up midfight. The PCs were caught, halfway between falling back to hold the hallway to the stairs and holding the hallway ahead. A dozen gnolls charged in, wielding shields and morninstars.
The gnolls rushed towards the PCs, and the front two were quickly cut down by a combination of an arrow from Vlad and blows from Thor and Persistance - and both rolled 17s on Dodges, putting them down even as they got cut apart. Urbaine followed up with a Panic spell to block the hallway. The gnolls kept rushing in, but more than half of the remainder panicked from the spell and ran off. The remaining four charged in.
They didn't last long; they managed to rush through the wide-open "front line" of the PCs. A rash of critical failures frustrated the PCs here. Persistance swatted a gnoll and then dropped his flail with an 18. He rolled a 17 when attempting to quick-ready it, and knocked it across the floor ahead of him. A gnoll bypassed him and hit him twice on the skull with a morningstar, severely wounding him and knocking him cold.
Thor swung around chopped at the gnolls as another rushed Urbaine and slammed him back, crippling his arm. Hannari engaged that one, and sliced him up a few times. Vlad shot him with an arrow and Urbaine stabbed him, as well, eventually putting him down. Thor broke several gnoll shields and carved up the gnolls carrying them. In short order, the PCs killed the four gnolls, but not without lots of damage. As the last gnoll was going down, Duncan threw a 6d Stone Missile and rolled an 18 and hit Thor from behind, wounding him heavily. The fleeing gnolls got away, although the PCs heard a different voice barking out angrily down the hallway.
They decided to cut their losses and end the fight there. Duncan used Create Earth and Earth to Stone to create a pair of walls to block the hallways. He left a small hole in the one facing the gnolls in case they needed to shoot them.
They finished off the wounded gnolls, looted them of a bunch of coins and their remaining shields and their weapons, and headed back up to level 2.
There, they recovered a little FP with scrolls of Lend Energy and began to explore. They found their map indicated a blockage but there wasn't one, but decided to check some rooms near where their map indicated stirges.
The group found a couple of hallways lined with rooms - more rooms than their map indicated, many of which had notes on them that didn't match the actual contents.
Thor bashed the doors open, and using See Secrets they searched them all. They were mostly empty, but they found:
- a secret compartment, long overlooked, with five potions - Duncan froze his tongue taste-testing one . . . they turned out to be 3 Liquid Ice, 1 Perception, and 1 Fire Fountain. (Someone said, "Saleable loot" but I pointed out they're all $100 base value in town, not list price, per DFRPG Exploits, p. 76)
- an old, water-filled pit. Sending a servant down, and then Vlad when the servant got killed after grabbing . . . something. Seek Earth detected steel . . . and it turned out there were just bones and rusted old spikes. There was a human skeleton, in old bits, and the skeleton of a long-dead razor fish.
- a trapped chest full of rocks. They disarmed the traps and dragged the chest out and bashed it apart only to find the rocks. "Why trap a box full of rocks?" Because you don't trap the chest you actually use, you trap the trap.
- an empty old small wooden chest, which they took as loot despite its poor condition.
- an old child-sized broken cot.
- and a whole lot of nothing.
It was getting late, and they skirted the stirges and headed to check the "Orc Hole."
The group made their way their, bashing down doors and checking places as they went. In one area near the base of the pillboxes, they found a room with 18 2-man bunks. A second door in that room led to a common area . . . full of dead women and kids, all goblins of some kind, long dead and dessicated. A few near the door were clearly cut down with bladed weaponry, but a few just behind the door were not. The corners, especially the far two, were packed with bodies . . . there were a few dozen. They showed signs of having choked to death, with hands over mouths or holding throats, kids under females. The inside of the door was badly scratched, as if if they tried to claw their way out. Gruesome.
They headed from there straight to the orc hole, insisting as they went that it was the main goal, they were just about out of time, and it was important to not get distracted. They immediately turned aside to check out some stairs on their map, from the wholly meta reason that if they went down and explored a bit they'd get +1 XP. So they did that . . . and walked straight into an attempted ambush by a trio of werewolves!
Lucky for them, the sharp-eared Chop and Vlad heard them coming and prevented surprise. Hannari has a silver-coated kama and Vlad some silver-coated arrows, and their fighters do enormous damage, so they managed to wound and chase off one werewolf and put another one down. Naturally, Persistance dropped his flail on a critical failure.
We had to cut the session there, with a total of five werewolves attacking them, because of real world hard stop time constraints.
Notes:
- So much for not ending the dungeon. It's amusing because had they just left after they found their loot, they'd have sufficient loot to get 4 xp and +2 for two new level touches, for 6 each. Instead they're spending another session in the dungeon.
And so much for the exploration bonus. The PCs have gone to all of the "easy" levels for +1 XP, so that's all done. They don't get exploration XP for mapped areas. Urbaine said they shouldn't have gotten the map, as they'd get exploration XP. Kind of. I'd delete the maps entirely, and let them explore, but not count empty, looted areas as exploration . . . and not allow player knowledge about the levels. So it's not a realistic option, and even more stupidly gamey than "let's do one room on level 3."
- Werewolves are pretty tough, but 4d+10 is also really tough.
- Vlad wanted a gnoll prisoner to take home. The plan was to bring him to town and question him there, after hiring someone to cast Borrow Language. The issues with this were legion. Getting a wounded gnoll home, getting it into town (probably requires a bribe), hiring the someone, questioning the gnoll, and then probably killing the guy all in town. Not impossible, but literally getting away with murder would cost resources. It's only legal to loot Felltower and kill to do it due to a legal loophole. You can't murder folks you found in Felltower in town.
- MVP was Persistance as a consulation prize for a long list of 17s and 18s whenever he tried to do anything.
Sunday, November 12, 2023
Felltower Game pre-summary
Today we delved!
We had a shorter session, because of a hard stop because of a family event for a chunk of our players.
- the PCs fought the gnolls, scaring half off with Panic and killing the rest
- they walled off the approaches, looted, and ran
- they searched a section of level 2 long left alone
- they bashed open many doors, and smashed a few chests along the way
- they found some loot
- they decided to "check the Orc Hole" as time was running out
- not wanting to get distracted, they insisted on sticking with the main goal of going to the orc hole and not getting distracted
- which didn't preclude a side trip down some stairs to reap a +1 for going to a level for the first time
- and blundered into a big fight with a pack of werewolves.
We had to cut it off there, in combat, since we had a hard stop.
Bwahahahahahaha. A session's worth of XP potentially lost to get a +1. I should have known the +1 bonus points would have meant the first delve would be, "get loot and as touch as many levels as possible."
Ah, fun times.
Because of upcoming scheduling crunch situations, we'll try to get a short off-Sunday game to resolve the fight and end the delve. But still, so amusing.
We had a shorter session, because of a hard stop because of a family event for a chunk of our players.
- the PCs fought the gnolls, scaring half off with Panic and killing the rest
- they walled off the approaches, looted, and ran
- they searched a section of level 2 long left alone
- they bashed open many doors, and smashed a few chests along the way
- they found some loot
- they decided to "check the Orc Hole" as time was running out
- not wanting to get distracted, they insisted on sticking with the main goal of going to the orc hole and not getting distracted
- which didn't preclude a side trip down some stairs to reap a +1 for going to a level for the first time
- and blundered into a big fight with a pack of werewolves.
We had to cut it off there, in combat, since we had a hard stop.
Bwahahahahahaha. A session's worth of XP potentially lost to get a +1. I should have known the +1 bonus points would have meant the first delve would be, "get loot and as touch as many levels as possible."
Ah, fun times.
Because of upcoming scheduling crunch situations, we'll try to get a short off-Sunday game to resolve the fight and end the delve. But still, so amusing.
Saturday, November 11, 2023
Game tomorrow!
Tomorrow we continue the delve in Felltower started almost two weeks ago.
To save my sanity, I'm not going to split-session the delve; that is, the PCs can't finish the fight, run back to town, sell/spend/recoup, and then come back. We've done that before and, on reflection, it's the worst of both worlds. I get most of the downsides of in-town dealings and all of the downsides of not finishing in town. Those town downsides? Rulings, rolls, more rulings, endless "Are we using the rules for X and can I order 10 of them?" but admittedly not the daily emailed questions I answer instead of working on the dungeon or non-gaming things. The downsides for ending in the dungeon? We either need the same set of players or people need to play other players' characters and sorting out the XP is weird.
The VTT seems to be stable so I think that should speed up the fight compared to last session's endless issues.
And hopefully "stay in the dungeon" pays off for the delvers.
We'll see tomorrow.
To save my sanity, I'm not going to split-session the delve; that is, the PCs can't finish the fight, run back to town, sell/spend/recoup, and then come back. We've done that before and, on reflection, it's the worst of both worlds. I get most of the downsides of in-town dealings and all of the downsides of not finishing in town. Those town downsides? Rulings, rolls, more rulings, endless "Are we using the rules for X and can I order 10 of them?" but admittedly not the daily emailed questions I answer instead of working on the dungeon or non-gaming things. The downsides for ending in the dungeon? We either need the same set of players or people need to play other players' characters and sorting out the XP is weird.
The VTT seems to be stable so I think that should speed up the fight compared to last session's endless issues.
And hopefully "stay in the dungeon" pays off for the delvers.
We'll see tomorrow.
Friday, November 10, 2023
Links & Thoughts for 11/10/2023
End of the week links!
- Place names are weirder in England than in the US, it seems. We just have lots of places named for people and Native American words, and the occasional "New" with something after it.
- An example of play with The Last Gasp.
Looks interesting but it's a system that isn't for any of my current games.
- Caveman Dicechucker points out how disorganized the DMG is.
- The week before a game is very busy for me, with player emails and uploads to the VTT. Ones between cross-session delves? Quiet. Peaceful. Why is it that I want to end in town again?
- Nothing wrong with a toilet mimic.
- Place names are weirder in England than in the US, it seems. We just have lots of places named for people and Native American words, and the occasional "New" with something after it.
- An example of play with The Last Gasp.
Looks interesting but it's a system that isn't for any of my current games.
- Caveman Dicechucker points out how disorganized the DMG is.
- The week before a game is very busy for me, with player emails and uploads to the VTT. Ones between cross-session delves? Quiet. Peaceful. Why is it that I want to end in town again?
- Nothing wrong with a toilet mimic.
Thursday, November 9, 2023
Quicker Combat - Some of My Ideas
Following up on my post on Monday, here is some of what I'd do to speed up DF combat.
Range Bands
This one is a no-brainer. Mapped can use hexes, if people really want to, but it and mapless can use range bands based on those in GURPS Action. I have specific numbers in mind, but I'll save those for once I've been able to better test them. But skipping hex counting - people trying to imagine the map when we don't have one to maneuver to specific ranges - will speed things up.
Ramming Speed!
All slams use your maxium move to calculate damage. You must move at least 2+ steps for this, otherwise it's just a "punch" with your shoulder, shield, etc. Another way to reduce the importance of counting hexes.
No Retreat
As I discussed in an earlier post, no Retreat. Optionally you could just allow everyone a free +1/+3 to one defense, without any movement, which was suggested by Angon on this post in the comments. Either way, removing the movement aspect makes for a faster game.
Fixed Feints & Deceptive Attack
I've talked about this endlessly. Feints fixed at -4, -8 if you roll a critical success and your opponent does not, Deceptive Attack fixed at -2 and -4.
Cuts down on decision time and calculation.
This next one is very optional, but I think it shouldn't be overlooked as a possible way to speed up play in general.
Wider Use of No Nuissance Rolls
Treat anything that has a 16 or less to succeed other than combat rolls and consciousness/death checks as an automatic success. Have Acrobatics-16 after modifiers? You succeed. DX roll not to fall is 16+? You don't fall. Etc. This is a small class of rolls, but say you have HT 13 and Resistant to Poison 5, and get hit with a poison resisted at -2 or less - you don't roll, you just resist. Speeds things up for sure. Only roll if the roll would otherwise change things - Lockpicking-22 vs. a -6 Lock is still rolled, because every point of success shortens the amount of time needed to pop the lock, if time actually matters.
I have another idea or two . . . but I'll keep them close to my vest to avoid my players reading this post, arguing against them before trying them, and then not letting me try them. Heh.
The others? I'd like to give them a try and see if it speeds things up.
Range Bands
This one is a no-brainer. Mapped can use hexes, if people really want to, but it and mapless can use range bands based on those in GURPS Action. I have specific numbers in mind, but I'll save those for once I've been able to better test them. But skipping hex counting - people trying to imagine the map when we don't have one to maneuver to specific ranges - will speed things up.
Ramming Speed!
All slams use your maxium move to calculate damage. You must move at least 2+ steps for this, otherwise it's just a "punch" with your shoulder, shield, etc. Another way to reduce the importance of counting hexes.
No Retreat
As I discussed in an earlier post, no Retreat. Optionally you could just allow everyone a free +1/+3 to one defense, without any movement, which was suggested by Angon on this post in the comments. Either way, removing the movement aspect makes for a faster game.
Fixed Feints & Deceptive Attack
I've talked about this endlessly. Feints fixed at -4, -8 if you roll a critical success and your opponent does not, Deceptive Attack fixed at -2 and -4.
Cuts down on decision time and calculation.
This next one is very optional, but I think it shouldn't be overlooked as a possible way to speed up play in general.
Wider Use of No Nuissance Rolls
Treat anything that has a 16 or less to succeed other than combat rolls and consciousness/death checks as an automatic success. Have Acrobatics-16 after modifiers? You succeed. DX roll not to fall is 16+? You don't fall. Etc. This is a small class of rolls, but say you have HT 13 and Resistant to Poison 5, and get hit with a poison resisted at -2 or less - you don't roll, you just resist. Speeds things up for sure. Only roll if the roll would otherwise change things - Lockpicking-22 vs. a -6 Lock is still rolled, because every point of success shortens the amount of time needed to pop the lock, if time actually matters.
I have another idea or two . . . but I'll keep them close to my vest to avoid my players reading this post, arguing against them before trying them, and then not letting me try them. Heh.
The others? I'd like to give them a try and see if it speeds things up.
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
Weird VTT Glitch - fixed
I figured out the weird problem we were having:
Weird Foundry VTT Glitch
It was the Your Turn module. I went ahead and deleted it . . . and didn't see the glitch come up again. Hopefully all of the module swaps I did didn't mess up anyone's characters . . . I put them back after clearing out the problem module.
Weird Foundry VTT Glitch
It was the Your Turn module. I went ahead and deleted it . . . and didn't see the glitch come up again. Hopefully all of the module swaps I did didn't mess up anyone's characters . . . I put them back after clearing out the problem module.
Tuesday, November 7, 2023
More Lost Items of Felltower
I was just thinking of lost items of Felltower.
- Rangol Grot's mysterious stuff. The PCs kept trying to summon the lost spirit of Rangol Grot to get more loot out of him, but that's pretty much over. I can't see a plausible way for new PCs to try to pick up this thread. I'm sure one of my players will object, and point at the blog, and say people know about it. Which isn't ludicrous, but it also justifies other wizards in the world doing it, too, and then what? Will the new PCs win this race? Unlikely.
I think we can call Rangol Grot's spirit largely safe from summoning and interrogation.
- Dryst's key. Dryst's player shows no sign of wanting to play online, even almost 4 years into a drought of games. He's got the key to the otherwise-inaccesible door in the dungeon on level 2. It's not clear there is anything there worth getting at, but he's got the only way it and it's effectively out of play.
That also goes for the bone sword, Belt of Power, Staff of the Woodlands, Magebane, and a number of other items wielded by PCs whose players don't seem likely to make a comeback.
- the Black Library's books. Not actually lost - they're still in the dungeon. But the players aren't inclined to delve without a cleric. Not a single cleric anyone has run is willing to visit the library without attempting to destroy all the books. So, the books stay inaccessible. Not lost, but blocked by changed character approaches. We'll see if what's in there is ever really accessible.
- Rangol Grot's mysterious stuff. The PCs kept trying to summon the lost spirit of Rangol Grot to get more loot out of him, but that's pretty much over. I can't see a plausible way for new PCs to try to pick up this thread. I'm sure one of my players will object, and point at the blog, and say people know about it. Which isn't ludicrous, but it also justifies other wizards in the world doing it, too, and then what? Will the new PCs win this race? Unlikely.
I think we can call Rangol Grot's spirit largely safe from summoning and interrogation.
- Dryst's key. Dryst's player shows no sign of wanting to play online, even almost 4 years into a drought of games. He's got the key to the otherwise-inaccesible door in the dungeon on level 2. It's not clear there is anything there worth getting at, but he's got the only way it and it's effectively out of play.
That also goes for the bone sword, Belt of Power, Staff of the Woodlands, Magebane, and a number of other items wielded by PCs whose players don't seem likely to make a comeback.
- the Black Library's books. Not actually lost - they're still in the dungeon. But the players aren't inclined to delve without a cleric. Not a single cleric anyone has run is willing to visit the library without attempting to destroy all the books. So, the books stay inaccessible. Not lost, but blocked by changed character approaches. We'll see if what's in there is ever really accessible.
Monday, November 6, 2023
Quicker Combat - What Rules to Cut?
If you had to make GURPS combat run faster, what rules would you remove?
Not add, but change to another official rule, or rip out entirely?
I have a list myself, but I want to get some ideas from my readers before I reveal my plans.
Okay, okay, I'll give a starter. Range bands instead of per-hex range penalties.
You're next, what's on the chopping or changing block?
Not add, but change to another official rule, or rip out entirely?
I have a list myself, but I want to get some ideas from my readers before I reveal my plans.
Okay, okay, I'll give a starter. Range bands instead of per-hex range penalties.
You're next, what's on the chopping or changing block?
Sunday, November 5, 2023
Felltower Maintenance
We're still stuck mid-fight in Felltower, but that doesn't mean I can't get ready for the following session.
- I updated the rumor table, based on the current delve and some rumors/events I had planned for ahead of time.
- I updated the VTT and its modules; I didn't get to test it to see if it's still crapping out but at least there is a chance it is better.
- I looked at a few "restock" areas and made sure they're ready to go.
- I dug deeper into the dungeon and fleshed out a couple of areas that were very sparse notes. While "Tough Worthy, $10000 + trap" is enough for me to start with it's a bit light for actual play. Heh.
- I realized I need to re-copy my maps at some point . . . I have to get out to Staples or something and re-photocopy the bigger maps; some of them are 11 x 17, which makes it tricky for home printers or scanners to do much with.
- I updated the rumor table, based on the current delve and some rumors/events I had planned for ahead of time.
- I updated the VTT and its modules; I didn't get to test it to see if it's still crapping out but at least there is a chance it is better.
- I looked at a few "restock" areas and made sure they're ready to go.
- I dug deeper into the dungeon and fleshed out a couple of areas that were very sparse notes. While "Tough Worthy, $10000 + trap" is enough for me to start with it's a bit light for actual play. Heh.
- I realized I need to re-copy my maps at some point . . . I have to get out to Staples or something and re-photocopy the bigger maps; some of them are 11 x 17, which makes it tricky for home printers or scanners to do much with.
Saturday, November 4, 2023
I miss playing
I played in a few games in the past decade or so. Mostly, I GM'ed. But I played in a few games.
That I recall, I played in:
- Monteporte
- Vic's Felltower Adjacent DF game
- Tenkar's B-Team
- Gamma Terra
- Doug's Alien Menace
- GURPS Midgard
- Vlaclavs' GURPS Martial Arts: Gladiators
I don't think I missed any. I really don't get to play in a lot of games.
I enjoyed getting to play in them all to some extent or another.
This post is occasioned by the fact that I was thinking about what we left unfinished in Gamma Terra. I really enjoyed that game. Hillbilly is just a ST 17 exaggerated version of me, in so, so many ways. That made him a lot of fun to run . . . and often left me with regrets because Hillbilly did things that I would do, which aren't always the best things to do.
I'd like to play that game again, but I'm not sure andi jones is up for it at this point. He may have moved on. It's too bad.
We might get to play Vic's game again, because surely there will be days we can play but I'm not up to running game. Handsome is ready to lead whatever B-Teamers show up for those sessions.
The actual B-Team is likely over . . . but I had so much fun playing with Tenkar GMing, and usually Doug, Joe the Lawyer, and Tim "I roll 1s" Shorts playing alongside me. Such a fun, fun time. The dungeon was so goofy but Tenkar added a lot of charm to it, and the S&W rules made for simple fun.
The other games . . . I don't miss them so much. They were fun but didn't last long enough to really get a bite into. I liked my PC for Doug's Alien Menace game, because who wouldn't like to play Animal Mother? But like some other games, we didn't play that much. It's okay, I'm sure I'll get to play a game GM'ed by Doug using lots of guns.
I really would like to play more but I dedicate so many nights to non-gaming things that I can't fit too much in. But I'd enjoy getting to take Hillbilly or Mirado out for a ride again.
That I recall, I played in:
- Monteporte
- Vic's Felltower Adjacent DF game
- Tenkar's B-Team
- Gamma Terra
- Doug's Alien Menace
- GURPS Midgard
- Vlaclavs' GURPS Martial Arts: Gladiators
I don't think I missed any. I really don't get to play in a lot of games.
I enjoyed getting to play in them all to some extent or another.
This post is occasioned by the fact that I was thinking about what we left unfinished in Gamma Terra. I really enjoyed that game. Hillbilly is just a ST 17 exaggerated version of me, in so, so many ways. That made him a lot of fun to run . . . and often left me with regrets because Hillbilly did things that I would do, which aren't always the best things to do.
I'd like to play that game again, but I'm not sure andi jones is up for it at this point. He may have moved on. It's too bad.
We might get to play Vic's game again, because surely there will be days we can play but I'm not up to running game. Handsome is ready to lead whatever B-Teamers show up for those sessions.
The actual B-Team is likely over . . . but I had so much fun playing with Tenkar GMing, and usually Doug, Joe the Lawyer, and Tim "I roll 1s" Shorts playing alongside me. Such a fun, fun time. The dungeon was so goofy but Tenkar added a lot of charm to it, and the S&W rules made for simple fun.
The other games . . . I don't miss them so much. They were fun but didn't last long enough to really get a bite into. I liked my PC for Doug's Alien Menace game, because who wouldn't like to play Animal Mother? But like some other games, we didn't play that much. It's okay, I'm sure I'll get to play a game GM'ed by Doug using lots of guns.
I really would like to play more but I dedicate so many nights to non-gaming things that I can't fit too much in. But I'd enjoy getting to take Hillbilly or Mirado out for a ride again.
Friday, November 3, 2023
Random Links for 11/3/2023
It's Friday, what links have I been waiting to link to all week?
- Non-exploding cannon. Surely such wonders cannot exist!
Never Mind the Billhooks
- Sometimes, you expect the PCs to talk, and they fireball instead.
Just kidding. An NPC lied to the PCs, so the smallest reaction you can usually expect is total, violent, unrelenting revenge. I once had an NPC kill off some friends of the PCs. I don't think the players remembered. One other NPC made fun of them. They desperately wanted him dead.
Stonehell: Auntie Ethel's Hut
- So an OSR-like, 5e-like, rules-light minis-heavy RPG from Reaper? Okay. I can't get excited anymore over new dungeon bashing RPGs. I own more than I'll ever play and that's a fraction of what is out there. But if it's for you, $49 will get you the PDFs.
Reaper Minatures Dungeon Dwellers
- Vetting the rules behind a comic joke. +4 to backstab
Sound Tactics & a graps of the rules carry the day
- What's up at Gaming Ballistic.
- Non-exploding cannon. Surely such wonders cannot exist!
my final battle of the day was against Colin who brought along an Italian army which had some interesting technological advantages compared to armies from a slightly earlier period like my Burgundians - like a non-exploding cannon! Unfortunately I did not have such technology and my cannon exploded in the first turn!
Never Mind the Billhooks
- Sometimes, you expect the PCs to talk, and they fireball instead.
Just kidding. An NPC lied to the PCs, so the smallest reaction you can usually expect is total, violent, unrelenting revenge. I once had an NPC kill off some friends of the PCs. I don't think the players remembered. One other NPC made fun of them. They desperately wanted him dead.
Stonehell: Auntie Ethel's Hut
- So an OSR-like, 5e-like, rules-light minis-heavy RPG from Reaper? Okay. I can't get excited anymore over new dungeon bashing RPGs. I own more than I'll ever play and that's a fraction of what is out there. But if it's for you, $49 will get you the PDFs.
Reaper Minatures Dungeon Dwellers
- Vetting the rules behind a comic joke. +4 to backstab
Sound Tactics & a graps of the rules carry the day
- What's up at Gaming Ballistic.
Thursday, November 2, 2023
Still thinking on Shield Damage
Back in 2020, I came up with some simplified rules for shield damage for DF Felltower.
Simplified Shield Damage for DF Felltower
They didn't last long, because I still don't feel like keeping track for NPCs and I noticed players don't really keep track for their PCs, either.
Vic suggested the damage rules from Shields Up!, and ran them in his last session of play. I didn't notice them making it much faster or easier to track.
Here is another possibility:
- Shields have DR per my post above.
- Shields have 1 HP per base pounds of weight; damage in excess of DR + HP in one blow breaks a shield automatically; shields are either fine or broken completely.
- Cumulative damage may break or weaken a shield; GM's call based on particular types of damage - usually corrosion or fire. Such attacks can drop a shield to 0 HP over time and break the shield.
- Shatterpoof, metal, etc. work normally. Lighten makes a shield lighter but not weaker.
Seems like this could work. It makes shields fragile to an extent but dealing with giant monster blows should be risky to weapons and shields alike.
Simplified Shield Damage for DF Felltower
They didn't last long, because I still don't feel like keeping track for NPCs and I noticed players don't really keep track for their PCs, either.
Vic suggested the damage rules from Shields Up!, and ran them in his last session of play. I didn't notice them making it much faster or easier to track.
Here is another possibility:
- Shields have DR per my post above.
- Shields have 1 HP per base pounds of weight; damage in excess of DR + HP in one blow breaks a shield automatically; shields are either fine or broken completely.
- Cumulative damage may break or weaken a shield; GM's call based on particular types of damage - usually corrosion or fire. Such attacks can drop a shield to 0 HP over time and break the shield.
- Shatterpoof, metal, etc. work normally. Lighten makes a shield lighter but not weaker.
Seems like this could work. It makes shields fragile to an extent but dealing with giant monster blows should be risky to weapons and shields alike.
Wednesday, November 1, 2023
Weird Foundry VTT glitch
Sunday's game was heavily disrupted by a VTT glitch.
This didn't happen to everyone, but happened to a number of us.
Whenever the combat tracker went to the next character, it would "zoom" in a little bit and move the UI off the top and side edges of the screen. Only reloading the screen would help.
I took a screenshot to show what I mean.
I tried turning off the combat-related modules, but to no avail. We couldn't seem to turn off the GIANT BANNER displaying who'se turn it was, either. If there is a setting for that I don't know what it is. It's not the banner that's the issue, but it did seem to be a new thing that was also tied to this new problem.
Anyone encounter this before?
It happened to a few players, using both Chrome and Firefox. One guy with Safari didn't have a problem, but we had a guy on Chrome without the problem as well.
No clue here. Anyone?
This didn't happen to everyone, but happened to a number of us.
Whenever the combat tracker went to the next character, it would "zoom" in a little bit and move the UI off the top and side edges of the screen. Only reloading the screen would help.
I took a screenshot to show what I mean.
I tried turning off the combat-related modules, but to no avail. We couldn't seem to turn off the GIANT BANNER displaying who'se turn it was, either. If there is a setting for that I don't know what it is. It's not the banner that's the issue, but it did seem to be a new thing that was also tied to this new problem.
Anyone encounter this before?
It happened to a few players, using both Chrome and Firefox. One guy with Safari didn't have a problem, but we had a guy on Chrome without the problem as well.
No clue here. Anyone?
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Rules & Rulings from Session 185
Some rules and rulings from Sunday's game session.
Throwing Art & Damage Bonus
This was a sizeable issue. I believe Vic ran this as follows:
- allows you to throw anything.
- weapons without a stat line get to use a similar weapon with no penalties.
- Range bonus and damage bonus apply to any actual weapons even if not normally throwable.
That's not how I read DFRPG Adventurers, p. 34. I read it as follows:
- allows you to throw anything.
- actual thrown weapons with a ranged weapon stat line get a range bonus and damage bonus.
- weapons without a stat line are improvised and are thrown like a similar ranged weapon, but do not get a range bonus or damage bonus.
- said weapons usually have a -1 to -3 penalty to hit, which Throwing Art ignores.
- said weapons use whatever the similar weapon's attack types (see below) but if their own similar attack does less damage, use that instead.
So a thrown kama has the Acc and Range of a hatchet, and does sw/cut. I allow sw/imp because I've played around with actual kama and that's a more plausible missile attack than the cutting, but letting it manage to cut isn't crazy either. Again, I've played around with actual kama.*
Now, I did argue duing Vic's game that Hanari should be able to throw his katana and inflict cutting damage, because I thought that would be awesome and it wasn't my call. He allowed for it. Would I? Generally not. A spinning sword is going to do crappy cutting damage, if any, because all that spin around a balanced blade can't be good for preserving any kind of force or impart it to the target. Their is a reason that sw/thrown weapons are all top-heavy weapons. Anyway, in my game, no. Throw your sword point-first; I may allow "tip slash" damage if you want to crease the edge along a target, though. Ask when it matters.
So I had to put my foot down and not allow a thrown Long Knife to do sw-1/cutting; it's thrown like a lowsy large knife. I understand the logic - it doesn't have an entry for throwing, it's thrown like a similar weapon, and if he could throw a katana for cut in a related game he should be able to do so here. But I intend to be strict on my stance.
FWIW I checked with Kromm, and his response is consistant with my interpretation for DFRPG, our base rules set. GURPS Martial Arts, p. 220, has different rules, but DF Felltower is cored by DFRPG at this point, with expansions, and the simpler rules in DFRPG win out here.
My player took it very well, but I know he put a lot of work in making weapons stat up nicely in GCS and then in Foundry and now those stats are inaccurate.
Balanced and Throwable
Does the Balanced prefix make a normally non-throwable weapon into a throwable weapon (and thus able to get those range and damage bonuses)? No. It provides +1 to skill. The name implies "balanced for throwing" but the name isn't the game effects. I mean, "Fine" means "+1 damage and harder to break" for swords but they aren't ornate, which is what "finely made" might mean in reality. Names are just names to imply a game effect.
I don't allow a different prefix to make weapons throwable, nor do I allow a non-prefix cost change. Stick with what's on the charts, there are plenty of weapons there. The game is about delving and exploring and killing monsters and finding gold, not optimizing custom weaponry to add options to an already broad list of effective weapons. My player's spending habits for their PCs disagree but here we are.
FWIW, one important caveat - Weapon Master matters. That's per weapon, and it doesn't matter how you use that weapon. Damage bonuses from WM do get included for throwing normally non-throwable weapons if the WM advantage covers it.
Shoot it off your own face
What's the penalty to shoot a spider, or stirge, or whatever, off of your own face?
-10. Only a critical miss will result in shooting yourself.
How did we come up with that?
Because reversing your bow so you can shoot something on you, in such a way that overpenetration or a miss has a minimal chance of hitting yourself, seems really hard. Stupidly so.
Does Heroic Archer reduce the penalty? No. It makes it possible. I won't even allow someone without it to try. It's stupid and illogical and makes no sense to even work, nevermind hit with full damage and be doable on a 1-second time scale with no special moves to ready anything. Heroic Archer means you can try.
That ruling makes me happy, and the couple times this has come up Scouts haven't hesitated to try. So I think that's a vote in favor!
* You can literally buy one out of a bin in Japanese hardware stores. Weaponized kama, no, but tool ones, sure. I didn't buy one, I grew morning glories and they didn't need much pruning.**
** My job successor threw them out, because she was a late riser and said the pots only had vines and never flowers. Timing matters. RIP flowers.
Throwing Art & Damage Bonus
This was a sizeable issue. I believe Vic ran this as follows:
- allows you to throw anything.
- weapons without a stat line get to use a similar weapon with no penalties.
- Range bonus and damage bonus apply to any actual weapons even if not normally throwable.
That's not how I read DFRPG Adventurers, p. 34. I read it as follows:
- allows you to throw anything.
- actual thrown weapons with a ranged weapon stat line get a range bonus and damage bonus.
- weapons without a stat line are improvised and are thrown like a similar ranged weapon, but do not get a range bonus or damage bonus.
- said weapons usually have a -1 to -3 penalty to hit, which Throwing Art ignores.
- said weapons use whatever the similar weapon's attack types (see below) but if their own similar attack does less damage, use that instead.
So a thrown kama has the Acc and Range of a hatchet, and does sw/cut. I allow sw/imp because I've played around with actual kama and that's a more plausible missile attack than the cutting, but letting it manage to cut isn't crazy either. Again, I've played around with actual kama.*
Now, I did argue duing Vic's game that Hanari should be able to throw his katana and inflict cutting damage, because I thought that would be awesome and it wasn't my call. He allowed for it. Would I? Generally not. A spinning sword is going to do crappy cutting damage, if any, because all that spin around a balanced blade can't be good for preserving any kind of force or impart it to the target. Their is a reason that sw/thrown weapons are all top-heavy weapons. Anyway, in my game, no. Throw your sword point-first; I may allow "tip slash" damage if you want to crease the edge along a target, though. Ask when it matters.
So I had to put my foot down and not allow a thrown Long Knife to do sw-1/cutting; it's thrown like a lowsy large knife. I understand the logic - it doesn't have an entry for throwing, it's thrown like a similar weapon, and if he could throw a katana for cut in a related game he should be able to do so here. But I intend to be strict on my stance.
FWIW I checked with Kromm, and his response is consistant with my interpretation for DFRPG, our base rules set. GURPS Martial Arts, p. 220, has different rules, but DF Felltower is cored by DFRPG at this point, with expansions, and the simpler rules in DFRPG win out here.
My player took it very well, but I know he put a lot of work in making weapons stat up nicely in GCS and then in Foundry and now those stats are inaccurate.
Balanced and Throwable
Does the Balanced prefix make a normally non-throwable weapon into a throwable weapon (and thus able to get those range and damage bonuses)? No. It provides +1 to skill. The name implies "balanced for throwing" but the name isn't the game effects. I mean, "Fine" means "+1 damage and harder to break" for swords but they aren't ornate, which is what "finely made" might mean in reality. Names are just names to imply a game effect.
I don't allow a different prefix to make weapons throwable, nor do I allow a non-prefix cost change. Stick with what's on the charts, there are plenty of weapons there. The game is about delving and exploring and killing monsters and finding gold, not optimizing custom weaponry to add options to an already broad list of effective weapons. My player's spending habits for their PCs disagree but here we are.
FWIW, one important caveat - Weapon Master matters. That's per weapon, and it doesn't matter how you use that weapon. Damage bonuses from WM do get included for throwing normally non-throwable weapons if the WM advantage covers it.
Shoot it off your own face
What's the penalty to shoot a spider, or stirge, or whatever, off of your own face?
-10. Only a critical miss will result in shooting yourself.
How did we come up with that?
Because reversing your bow so you can shoot something on you, in such a way that overpenetration or a miss has a minimal chance of hitting yourself, seems really hard. Stupidly so.
Does Heroic Archer reduce the penalty? No. It makes it possible. I won't even allow someone without it to try. It's stupid and illogical and makes no sense to even work, nevermind hit with full damage and be doable on a 1-second time scale with no special moves to ready anything. Heroic Archer means you can try.
That ruling makes me happy, and the couple times this has come up Scouts haven't hesitated to try. So I think that's a vote in favor!
* You can literally buy one out of a bin in Japanese hardware stores. Weaponized kama, no, but tool ones, sure. I didn't buy one, I grew morning glories and they didn't need much pruning.**
** My job successor threw them out, because she was a late riser and said the pots only had vines and never flowers. Timing matters. RIP flowers.
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