In Felltower, we use a little rule buried in the back of Basic Set: Characters (p. B326) that makes critical hits just bypass defenses, no table roll, and a "3" is max damage.
One way I thought of speeding combat - thanks to additional lethality - is to make all critical hits maximum damage. Roll a 3-4, or a 5 or a 6 with sufficient skill (or a 7 for some templates) and bang, max damage and bypass defenses.
This would add a lot of lethality to combat when the big boys roll a 3-6. Less so when others do . . . but make wizards really happy when they nail a crit on an Explosive spell thrown at an actual person.*
It wouldn't help fodder much, but at least sometimes they'd manage to hurt someone.
It would make boss monsters really, really scary. You can't get critically hit and luck out with a low damage roll against you. A giant doing 6d+12 or something would just flat out do 48 damage and that's that.
I don't think my players would go for this but part of me wants to try it. I think it would increase the bloodbath of combats and certainly erase a few foes here and there much more quickly.
* I joke. They all take the +4 for targeting the floor that I find totally bogus, but accept as a rule.
Monday, April 22, 2024
Sunday, April 21, 2024
Felltower Updates
Updates to Felltower in anticipation of next week's game.
Volunteers?
For quite a while, no one had delved into Felltower. Those that did, returned battered and usually no better off. But the last group came back talking about beating up some beetles and taking home a nice payoff. That's the kind of thing that makes volunteers show up.
As usual, volunteers tend to be the kind of guys you wouldn't pay for. Wizards who may or may not actually cast spells, like Ken Shabby. One-armed swordsmen. One-eyed archers. No-morals semi-human thugs. Folks as dangerous to you as they are to the enemy, and/or themselve.
But my players love them, so we'll see a few more of them if this keeps up.
Rumors
All rumors are true, even the false ones. Like a Nostradamus prediction, they get contorted around until they match what happened, or what happened gets contorted around until it matches the rumor.
Either way, I wrote a bunch of rumors.
Restocking
Very little. I think I'd benefit from a more systematic, roll-based approach. For now I eyeball it and do some randomizing, but I wonder if I could generate a system based on my stocking system that would tell me what moves into Felltower, and what moves out, and just modify the dungeon based on that each time? Hmm . . .
Volunteers?
For quite a while, no one had delved into Felltower. Those that did, returned battered and usually no better off. But the last group came back talking about beating up some beetles and taking home a nice payoff. That's the kind of thing that makes volunteers show up.
As usual, volunteers tend to be the kind of guys you wouldn't pay for. Wizards who may or may not actually cast spells, like Ken Shabby. One-armed swordsmen. One-eyed archers. No-morals semi-human thugs. Folks as dangerous to you as they are to the enemy, and/or themselve.
But my players love them, so we'll see a few more of them if this keeps up.
Rumors
All rumors are true, even the false ones. Like a Nostradamus prediction, they get contorted around until they match what happened, or what happened gets contorted around until it matches the rumor.
Either way, I wrote a bunch of rumors.
Restocking
Very little. I think I'd benefit from a more systematic, roll-based approach. For now I eyeball it and do some randomizing, but I wonder if I could generate a system based on my stocking system that would tell me what moves into Felltower, and what moves out, and just modify the dungeon based on that each time? Hmm . . .
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Limits on Targeting Hit Locations?
This post is thanks to Faodladh, who made a comment on my last post on this subject.
In GURPS, it's very common to target specific hit locations. For skilled fighters run by skilled players, they often target a very small handful of optimal locations. You get eye shot guy, neck slicer guy, I only shoot the vitals guy. It's not always that realistic - the vitals or eyes or neck are always targetable? You can go for them over and over again. So let's say you want to limit the options.
Option 1: Minimum Effective Skill 10.
Like Deceptive Attack, attacks aimed at a specific location must have a minimum effective skill of 10. Therefore, to target the vitals (-3), you need a minimum effective skill of 13. Skull? 17. Eyes? 19.
Pros: Easy to implement. Limits tricky shots to the skilled.
Cons: You can't try a Hail Mary eye shot to win a fight unless your skill is higher.
Option 2: Only What's Open
I think Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch suggested this or something somewhat like this, back in the day. Roll on the Hit Location Table. Whatever comes up is your best target, at a -0. Or you can choose anything else, but with an extra -2 on it.
Pros: Has a realistic feel to it.
Cons: Probably just imposes an extra roll and/or people buying 2 extra points of skill to eat the penalties.
Option 3: Saw it Coming
Use the rules as written, but give a +1 to defend against any targeted attack after the first one on the same target.
Pros: Can be used with the RAW or the rules above.
Cons: Still allows anyone who wants to hunt for specific areas to do so.
I have some more ideas, but it's late so they'll need to wait for another post.
In GURPS, it's very common to target specific hit locations. For skilled fighters run by skilled players, they often target a very small handful of optimal locations. You get eye shot guy, neck slicer guy, I only shoot the vitals guy. It's not always that realistic - the vitals or eyes or neck are always targetable? You can go for them over and over again. So let's say you want to limit the options.
Option 1: Minimum Effective Skill 10.
Like Deceptive Attack, attacks aimed at a specific location must have a minimum effective skill of 10. Therefore, to target the vitals (-3), you need a minimum effective skill of 13. Skull? 17. Eyes? 19.
Pros: Easy to implement. Limits tricky shots to the skilled.
Cons: You can't try a Hail Mary eye shot to win a fight unless your skill is higher.
Option 2: Only What's Open
I think Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch suggested this or something somewhat like this, back in the day. Roll on the Hit Location Table. Whatever comes up is your best target, at a -0. Or you can choose anything else, but with an extra -2 on it.
Pros: Has a realistic feel to it.
Cons: Probably just imposes an extra roll and/or people buying 2 extra points of skill to eat the penalties.
Option 3: Saw it Coming
Use the rules as written, but give a +1 to defend against any targeted attack after the first one on the same target.
Pros: Can be used with the RAW or the rules above.
Cons: Still allows anyone who wants to hunt for specific areas to do so.
I have some more ideas, but it's late so they'll need to wait for another post.
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Multiple Defense penalty not automatically resetting?
I had a stray idea for a rough, gritty rule for cascading defenses.
Instead of resetting the penalty for multiple defenses on your turn, do not reset it unless:
- you spend a full second without using any defenses
or, optionally
- you spend a turn doing Evaluate
This is a simple, but very nasty rule. Being outnumbered and unable to take a breather - to step back and just reset - means your defenses will eventually be whittled down. Good ways to trigger the first is to use Move and clear the battle area, a classic swashbuckler move. Allowing Evaluate means you can stay in the fray, but not launch any offense, and it helps make Evaluate do something.
Why not reset when you do All-Out Defense? I think it just rewards taking a second being even more defense, which someone pressed is going to just do fairly often.
This would be a pain to deal with in a large fray, but it's probably a good way to make multiple foes - even weak ones - nasty in a realistic game with more detailed combat and/or smaller numbers of combatants. It also should have the emergent behavior of making outnumbered fighters either moving very defensively to try to limit their exposure, or very aggressively to take out a foe to cut down the odds. Right now, that's not always worth doing - the first might be useful, but with high defenses you can just ride out the attacks. The second is just standard behavior, but usually folks get a lot more tactical about which foe they choose to try to take out. Suddenly this would make "take out someone, anyone, even briefly so I can reset or even up" very attractive.
I haven't playtested this but it might be fun to try it out sometime.
Instead of resetting the penalty for multiple defenses on your turn, do not reset it unless:
- you spend a full second without using any defenses
or, optionally
- you spend a turn doing Evaluate
This is a simple, but very nasty rule. Being outnumbered and unable to take a breather - to step back and just reset - means your defenses will eventually be whittled down. Good ways to trigger the first is to use Move and clear the battle area, a classic swashbuckler move. Allowing Evaluate means you can stay in the fray, but not launch any offense, and it helps make Evaluate do something.
Why not reset when you do All-Out Defense? I think it just rewards taking a second being even more defense, which someone pressed is going to just do fairly often.
This would be a pain to deal with in a large fray, but it's probably a good way to make multiple foes - even weak ones - nasty in a realistic game with more detailed combat and/or smaller numbers of combatants. It also should have the emergent behavior of making outnumbered fighters either moving very defensively to try to limit their exposure, or very aggressively to take out a foe to cut down the odds. Right now, that's not always worth doing - the first might be useful, but with high defenses you can just ride out the attacks. The second is just standard behavior, but usually folks get a lot more tactical about which foe they choose to try to take out. Suddenly this would make "take out someone, anyone, even briefly so I can reset or even up" very attractive.
I haven't playtested this but it might be fun to try it out sometime.
Monday, April 15, 2024
More notes from Session 191
We played yesterday, Session 191, and I had a few more notes I'd forgotten yesterday.
- the PCs fought a bunch of slicer beetles. I found it easier to just do TOTM, as they call it, winged ranges, and tracking the monsters by hand. I didn't bother to put all 20 of them into the turn tracker, make sure each token was rotated properly, etc. I just did it on note paper. I may do that for true fodder encounters.
I was hopeful one of them would roll a 3 or something and lop off someone's hand or foot, but none of them did so. The PCs rattled off about a dozen criticals during the fight. You know, against fodder-level defenses, where it hardly mattered. You can't control the dice.
- The PCs gave Harold $120, a full 100% bonus on his asking rate, and asked him to be available in 2 weeks. We'll see - they get a nice bonus on their roll to find him again, and it does slightly increase his Loyalty, too.
Darkspire took a share, and we'll see if he's available again. He might be, if only because I have him in the system. Otherwise I've aked for at least one week before the play date for NPC requests because it's time consuming to make and upload the NPCs, ensure they have a token, name, quirks, etc. and all of that. I don't want to do a bunch "just in case" because I don't enjoy the process of making characters in GCS. My players love it, I find it really annoying.
- I find exploration without the "unlimited LOS view" of Dark Vision more fun to GM. It's a much shorter "you see this and that" and not a lot of "so-and-so sees" and "I tell them that" or what have you.
- the PCs found a broken set of orc ladders, and the thinking was Hjalmarr broke them. Could be. I describe PCs as being like wolverines, except that goal one is destroy anything you can to prevent the NPCs from using it, and goal two is get whatever they can use. So, so many doors, portcullises, ladders, entrances, exits, tools, puzzles, and re-useable items in the dungeon have been pillaged for loot (rarely) and destroyed so the (fill in name of group NPCs) can't use it/lock it/block it/come around behind us/come out of the dungeon/sell it/whatever. I once ran an arch villain in a campaign whose attitude was "don't break anything you might need later" so he didn't stomp the PCs just in case he needed them, tried to keep allies (and even useful enemies) alive, etc. That was a fun exercise, highly recommended.
- Oh, and it's tax day in the US, but not in Felltower, because everything looted under Felltower is tax-free. Because paying taxes in game is very, very old school AD&D, and also very, very annoying to deal with. So I made up a way to not do it.
Fun session.
- the PCs fought a bunch of slicer beetles. I found it easier to just do TOTM, as they call it, winged ranges, and tracking the monsters by hand. I didn't bother to put all 20 of them into the turn tracker, make sure each token was rotated properly, etc. I just did it on note paper. I may do that for true fodder encounters.
I was hopeful one of them would roll a 3 or something and lop off someone's hand or foot, but none of them did so. The PCs rattled off about a dozen criticals during the fight. You know, against fodder-level defenses, where it hardly mattered. You can't control the dice.
- The PCs gave Harold $120, a full 100% bonus on his asking rate, and asked him to be available in 2 weeks. We'll see - they get a nice bonus on their roll to find him again, and it does slightly increase his Loyalty, too.
Darkspire took a share, and we'll see if he's available again. He might be, if only because I have him in the system. Otherwise I've aked for at least one week before the play date for NPC requests because it's time consuming to make and upload the NPCs, ensure they have a token, name, quirks, etc. and all of that. I don't want to do a bunch "just in case" because I don't enjoy the process of making characters in GCS. My players love it, I find it really annoying.
- I find exploration without the "unlimited LOS view" of Dark Vision more fun to GM. It's a much shorter "you see this and that" and not a lot of "so-and-so sees" and "I tell them that" or what have you.
- the PCs found a broken set of orc ladders, and the thinking was Hjalmarr broke them. Could be. I describe PCs as being like wolverines, except that goal one is destroy anything you can to prevent the NPCs from using it, and goal two is get whatever they can use. So, so many doors, portcullises, ladders, entrances, exits, tools, puzzles, and re-useable items in the dungeon have been pillaged for loot (rarely) and destroyed so the (fill in name of group NPCs) can't use it/lock it/block it/come around behind us/come out of the dungeon/sell it/whatever. I once ran an arch villain in a campaign whose attitude was "don't break anything you might need later" so he didn't stomp the PCs just in case he needed them, tried to keep allies (and even useful enemies) alive, etc. That was a fun exercise, highly recommended.
- Oh, and it's tax day in the US, but not in Felltower, because everything looted under Felltower is tax-free. Because paying taxes in game is very, very old school AD&D, and also very, very annoying to deal with. So I made up a way to not do it.
Fun session.
Sunday, April 14, 2024
DF Session 191, Felltower 129 - Troll Treasure & Orc Holes
Date: April 14th, 2024
Weather: Sunny, warm.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (308 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (297 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (310 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf martial artist (255 points)
Darkspire the Inscrutable, human apprentice (125 points)
Harold, human guard (~80 points)
The PCs gathered in town, gathered rumors, and headed out to Felltower itself. The goal was simple - gain the loot from the trolls slain last time, and then . . . explore around. They managed to hire Harold, a low-rent fighter (asking $60 for the trip), and Darkspire, an Air College wizard, who came for a share. They noted he signed his agreement Marvin Darkspire, Esq. Hannari thinks he might work at Ragnarsson and Sons.
Once in the dungeon, they crossed the pit, but not before Thor fell into the pit and took 22 damage (13 after armor). The perils of low (no) Climbing skill and 20+ HP. They made it across, picked up the trail of the trolls, and then decided it led into too many NMZs and pits. So they went around, checking the room they'd fought spiders in a while back (they'd forgotten that) along the way.
They tried to cut into the mosaic hallway by a disused route, and found it wasn't just a NMZ, but a No Sanctity Zone, either. That wiped out the scout's lightstone. Vlad opened a glow vial and checked the big double doors nearby and found signs of trolls.
They backed off and took the long way around, and into the gigantic room. Darkspire opined the burned wreckage in the room was once books. In any case, they found the troll's trash pile . . . and their loot. They found a 2000 or so silver, 10 gold, a broach, an ornate shield, a helmet, and a tome on constructs.
They took the loot and headed down to level 2 via a trapdoor in that room. In the room below, a curious Thor pressed a button in an alcove, and the floor opened. He snatched the lip of the pit and avoided a fatal fall onto spikes.
Then it was over to the altar. They told the new guys the altar could turn up to 30 sp into gold, so they handed each NPC a bag and had them touch it in turn. Harold got +1 to all of his stats for a day. Darkspire got the transmuting effect (it comes up a lot, actually) and I rolled . . . 3d30 and got 47. So all 30 sp he had turned to gold. Oops. (I'm not sure why they thought it was only 30, but whatever.)
Next, they headed to the orc hole, and in. Some falls (Chop, this time) later, they made it down. Long story short, they explored the caves at the bottom thoroughly, and found nothing except some pits. They made their way the 3+ miles down the tunnel to the exit in the valley north of Felltower. There they found a stockade fence, towers, and patrolling orcs, with a cleared kill zone in front with a bunch of wolf-like dogs laying about.
They saw the place was pretty busy - they called it Orcburg - and backed off.
After they eventually made it back to the dungeon proper, they headed down to the caves where Sterick had been imprisoned. They basically wandered around there for a time, killed 20 slicer beetles, and then headed back home after not finding anything else worth noting.
They did check the spherical room and find a nest of a probably goblin-sized individual, who'd used the broken sarcophagus and twigs and wattle and mud to build a nest. No loot, though.
With that, they headed home, profitable for a change.
Notes:
- Hey, wow, we played Felltower again.
- XP was 1 exploration (they actually went into part of the orc hole no one had bothered to before), 4 xp loot (~600 sp or so each), 1 xp MVP for Thor to learn Climbing. Also because he was very useful when he wasn't Sir Fallsalot.
- It was a fun session despite what on paper wasn't a lot done. The loot was good, the players were focused, and everything went smoothly besides me getting booted from the VTT 2x for no apparant reason. Whatever. At least we gamed and enjoyed it!
Weather: Sunny, warm.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (308 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (297 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (310 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf martial artist (255 points)
Darkspire the Inscrutable, human apprentice (125 points)
Harold, human guard (~80 points)
The PCs gathered in town, gathered rumors, and headed out to Felltower itself. The goal was simple - gain the loot from the trolls slain last time, and then . . . explore around. They managed to hire Harold, a low-rent fighter (asking $60 for the trip), and Darkspire, an Air College wizard, who came for a share. They noted he signed his agreement Marvin Darkspire, Esq. Hannari thinks he might work at Ragnarsson and Sons.
Once in the dungeon, they crossed the pit, but not before Thor fell into the pit and took 22 damage (13 after armor). The perils of low (no) Climbing skill and 20+ HP. They made it across, picked up the trail of the trolls, and then decided it led into too many NMZs and pits. So they went around, checking the room they'd fought spiders in a while back (they'd forgotten that) along the way.
They tried to cut into the mosaic hallway by a disused route, and found it wasn't just a NMZ, but a No Sanctity Zone, either. That wiped out the scout's lightstone. Vlad opened a glow vial and checked the big double doors nearby and found signs of trolls.
They backed off and took the long way around, and into the gigantic room. Darkspire opined the burned wreckage in the room was once books. In any case, they found the troll's trash pile . . . and their loot. They found a 2000 or so silver, 10 gold, a broach, an ornate shield, a helmet, and a tome on constructs.
They took the loot and headed down to level 2 via a trapdoor in that room. In the room below, a curious Thor pressed a button in an alcove, and the floor opened. He snatched the lip of the pit and avoided a fatal fall onto spikes.
Then it was over to the altar. They told the new guys the altar could turn up to 30 sp into gold, so they handed each NPC a bag and had them touch it in turn. Harold got +1 to all of his stats for a day. Darkspire got the transmuting effect (it comes up a lot, actually) and I rolled . . . 3d30 and got 47. So all 30 sp he had turned to gold. Oops. (I'm not sure why they thought it was only 30, but whatever.)
Next, they headed to the orc hole, and in. Some falls (Chop, this time) later, they made it down. Long story short, they explored the caves at the bottom thoroughly, and found nothing except some pits. They made their way the 3+ miles down the tunnel to the exit in the valley north of Felltower. There they found a stockade fence, towers, and patrolling orcs, with a cleared kill zone in front with a bunch of wolf-like dogs laying about.
They saw the place was pretty busy - they called it Orcburg - and backed off.
After they eventually made it back to the dungeon proper, they headed down to the caves where Sterick had been imprisoned. They basically wandered around there for a time, killed 20 slicer beetles, and then headed back home after not finding anything else worth noting.
They did check the spherical room and find a nest of a probably goblin-sized individual, who'd used the broken sarcophagus and twigs and wattle and mud to build a nest. No loot, though.
With that, they headed home, profitable for a change.
Notes:
- Hey, wow, we played Felltower again.
- XP was 1 exploration (they actually went into part of the orc hole no one had bothered to before), 4 xp loot (~600 sp or so each), 1 xp MVP for Thor to learn Climbing. Also because he was very useful when he wasn't Sir Fallsalot.
- It was a fun session despite what on paper wasn't a lot done. The loot was good, the players were focused, and everything went smoothly besides me getting booted from the VTT 2x for no apparant reason. Whatever. At least we gamed and enjoyed it!
Friday, April 12, 2024
Links for Friday 4/12/24
Links for Friday!
- This is the kind of playset I want to play on.
Gaming - D Day Gold Beach
- Love Holloway illustrations like this one from B5 Horror on the Hill.
- Game on Sunday, finally.
- This is the kind of playset I want to play on.
Gaming - D Day Gold Beach
- Love Holloway illustrations like this one from B5 Horror on the Hill.
- Game on Sunday, finally.
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