More rulings & notes from session 201

Yesterday was session 201.

More notes!

Mocking their best option. At one point, Thor moved up into the guards vs. cultists fray, and a cultist stepped up from 2 hexes away to adjacent to Thor. Thor's player said, "Are you seriously stepping close to the human Quisinart?" and I said, "Yes." I mean, what an idiot. This fool was stepping from 2 hexes away from Thor, who has a 2-hex sword, into 1-hex range, where the cultist's club can hit. Thor's player instantly retracted it, but it was a funny moment - the cultist literally did the most combat-effective move he could do in the situation - stepped into a gap in a line, closed in on a fighter with a longer reach weapon than him, and attacked.

The fact that he was totally doomed was a whole different manner, but hey, with cultists resisting intruders, "Surrender because I'm probably overmatched" was about as much of an option for him as "Go home empty handed" was for Thor.

So if throw with both hands . . . Yes, I allow Dual-Weapon Attack with thrown weapons. It's about as silly as can be (just picture it), but I allow it. You must target the same or adjacent hexes unless you have Enhanced Tracking, which allows seperately aimed ranged attacks. There was a suggestion that cone rules could be applied to determine an appropriate spread of potential targets, but that'll be complex and I don't think any better from a play perspective. It'll be even harder to rationalize, and harder to actually implement. Same with "one automatically scatters." That's easier but I'm not sure it's really more believable that one always misses by 1 at a minimum.

More VTT notes. It would be nice if the character in a hex that is "up" on the turn order would be automatically selected. It would be nice if I could put names on tokens Always on Top. It would be nice if I could apprend a random 3-digit number in () after each name of duplicated characters so I can tell them apart. It would be nice if I could drag-and-drop damage onto the characters on the turn tracker. Also, it would be nice if status was a drop-down menu unconnected to a token - drag and drop status effects would vastly speed up dealing with mooks.

Hirelings cost how much? The PCs spent around $4K on 8 guards, 2 laborers, and 4 125-point hirelings. That's 14 people, some with substantial pay asks. Also, they promised higher pay in order to help find them (see, "Where did you find these guys?" in DF15) - and that adds up. It would have be a lot less if they'd offered normal rates.

Do we get a bonus to find known guys? No. If you took a -3 to get an elf with broadsword and Fireball it's -3 to find that same guy again. It's not -0 because it's a known person. It's just pure luck and GM laziness that makes it the same character next time, not because it's easier to find the guy the next time. Maybe realistically it would be, but it's a game and I don't want to reward gaming the system by jacking up the bonuses to find a specific type of character and then not needing those bonuses net time for that same character. No thanks.

Ho, Ho, Ho? Next game is likely 12/22, and/or 12/29. We'll see.

Felltower: Making Hirelings

My players decided to hire a lot of hirelings for their next delve - a handful of 125-pointers, and a few guards and laborers.

So my free time for the next few days will go to wrestling with the absolute madness that is GCS, since I don't have GCA5 mastered or tuned to Felltower, then importing the characters into the VTT, then making icons for them.

I miss playing on paper, because I could have done all of the NPCs by hand by the time I finished the first one, mostly, as he still lacks equipment. And then had the fun of finding a mini for it, rather than the chore of making an icon. This could just be old gamer griping, except that additional layers of work isn't really much fun for anyone that I know of.

I could allow the players to make their own guys, but I generally do not, because then they end up as min-maxed guys exactly as their employer would like (especially when it comes to disadvantages), and because they also end up less interesting to me as NPCs.

How many hirelings are available in Felltower?

Here are the limits, currently, on hirelings and henchmen in DF Felltower.


62-point Bargain Henchmen: Unlimited. PCs can get as many as they like, subject to rolls (the usual 1+margin of success)

125-point Henchmen: Limited. One per PC per search. Known and existing hirelings may be found on a seperate roll.

187-point Henchmen: Rare. A critical success on a search for a 125-point henchmen is needed.

250-point Henchmen. Just kidding. They don't exist.

Felltower Generic NPC: Guard

This is the standard "guard" NPC that PCs hire or sometimes fight. This is built off of the 62-point Guard template in Dungeon Fantasy 15: Henchmen.

Generic Guard

Available for hire, or to fight the PCs as they delve!

ST 12 HP 12 Speed 5.75
DX 11 Will 10 Move 4
IQ 10 Per 10
HT 12 FP 12
Dodge 7 Parry 9+DB 2 Block 11

Broadsword (13): 1d+3 cutting, 1d+1 impaling, Reach 1.
Large Knife (11): 1d cut, or 1d-1 impaling, Reach C, 1.

Traits: Bully; Code of Honor (Soldier's); High Pain Threshold; Overconfidence (12); Sense of Duty (Companions).

Skills: Armoury (Melee Weapons)-9; Brawling-11; Broadsword-13; Carousing-12; Climbing-10; Knife-11; Shield-12; Stealth-10; Wrestling-10.

Equipment: Heavy Leather Armor Suit (with face protection); Cheap Broadsword; Large Knife; Medium Shield; Personal Basics; Pouch; Wineskin (1 quart capacity).

Notes: For a bandit type, repace Code of Honor (Soldier's) and Sese of Duty (Companions) with Greed. Loadout puts the guard at Light encumbrance with an empty pouch and wineskin, medium with just about any load at all.



Note they lack - deliberately - empty carrying sacks, backpacks, etc. This is a design choice by the GM to make it harder to turn "hired fighters" into "loot carriers." That's a laborer's job. Armor is from DFRPG, not GURPS Basic Set.

How to use hirelings to boost a Felltower Party: GM's View

This is a GM's view of a useful way to use hirelings in DF Felltower. I'm focusing especially 62-point hirelings, since they're pretty much available in large amounts in a way that 125 point ones are not. Expected additional reading: What are Hirelings Good For?


Repeat after me: Hirelings are Not PCs

One of the biggest issues I see is expecting too much of hirelings. I've heard of walls of polearm-armed NPCs keeping the enemy back, archers or crossbowmen keeping the enemy pinned down (I think that's much more a modern rapid-fire firearms idea, anyway) or "sniping," backstabbing foes, etc.

The thing is, 62-point hirelings are boderline fodder or actually fodder vs. 250 point delvers, depending on how efficiently built for combat they are. Against 300 point delvers, they're fodder. Why is that important? Because they're at best better than 1:1 equal with fodder, but more likely 1:1 equal with fodder. They aren't 1:1 equal against worthy opponents. If orcs are fodder, ogres are worthy. If large spiders are fodder, giant spiders are worthy. If goblins are fodder, trolls are worthy. Is your 62-point hireling equal to an ogre or a giant spider or a troll? No.

So don't expect them to accomplish anything more in combat than an equal number of fodder opponents.

So what are they good for?

Largely, freeing up PCs to do PC things.

Hirelings can be best used in Felltower, in my opinion, to do the following:

- Covering the flanks. In a place like Felltower, this is largely acting as a rear-guard tripwire, and watching crossing hallways to keep the PCs from being surprised - or at least reduce the odds of that. This also slows down any attackers until the PCs can turn around on them and engage. It's unlikely they'd win a fight, but they can provide valuable assistance just by starting the fight before the threat reaches the PCs.

Guards are your template of choice for this situation.

- Carrying the loot and the bodies. Way too often, the PCs depend on PCs to carry loot, carry out unconcious buddies, and carry out the slain. Worse, it's often getting a badly wounded PC concious despite being at negative HP and just hoping they can limp to safety. Having some NPCs - especially those designed to do so - carry stuff is helpful. Laborers are rarely considered because people assume that arms-carrying mercenaries are happy to stop being warriors and start being laborers. They might tolerate it, even willingly do it thanks to high Loyalty, but a guy with ST 12 and armor and weapons and a shield has less carrying capacity than a lightly-clad lightly-armed laborer with ST 13 and Lifting ST 2.

- Junk Work. Guarding the camp probably takes an actual Guard, while minding the rations and the left-behind loot is a good job for Servants. But when a job needs doing, and the sessions devolves into "I don't want to discuss how we do (X or Y or Z) for 10 minutes" the answer probably is a cheap NPC doing it, instead. Leaving NPCs behind policing up the battlefield, guarded by a few guards, is risky and has drawbacks, but if you need the PCs immediately in another battle, at least it's getting done somehow. Having an NPC to routinely guard camp spares the 10 minutes spent discussing how you'll conceal your stuff left outside the dungeon. And so on.

The rest of the potential uses? Makeweight combatants, augmenting the front lines, etc.? Generally a bit of a waste in a high-lethality situation like Felltower itself. They're useful when you need to cover lots of angles of attack and slow down the enemy, but they aren't going to win you a fight. They can reduce the cost of such a fight, and let the PCs focus on what they need to focus on.

In other words, let the PCs do their jobs, but have NPCs be your eyes, ears, and hands for the flanks, rear, and loot. Bringing your own fodder to the main battle is good, but better is preventing the enemy from flanking you because your NPCs block the corridor for a time. Having some crossbowmen shoot at the enemy (and all the time that takes in actual play for the GM resolving it!) is nice, but nicer is having your Scout shoot at the enemy while your fodder prevents the enemy from charging straight in. Having your knights and barbarians fight instead of carrying your unconcious buddies and the loot sure beats anything else.

Pro Tips:

Have the Leader PC do the Hiring. Loyalty is set based on the reaction roll of the hiring PC; this PC should also be the leader. "We tell them to listen to any of us" sounds great, but in a fight, who do they turn to? Everyone? Anyone? "Listen to any of us" quickly becomes "Do whatever seems useful to someone at the moment." Better they have a set leader, who then delegates authority in non-combat situations.

Have a good mix. Don't just hire 10 laborers or 10 guards or 10 torch bearers. Get a mix depending on what you actually need.

Tell the GM ahead of time. If the GM is sitting down to play, the GM won't have so much time to generate NPCs and load in tokens and give them names and so on. VTT is slower on the setup than physical play.


Just my opinion. I could be wrong, but it's what I see from my side of the screen.

Felltower & Hiring Henchmen - Making Skill beat IQ

This post, and rules change, is heavily inspired by comments by Douglas Cole. His comment was that knights - with Born War Leader - should be better at recruiting hirelings - than the cleric, whose IQ beats the knight's Born War Leader-improved Leadership skill. I was immediately swayed by this, but I didn't love the rough proposed suggestion of making BWL or Leadership work better. I think the issue is that IQ is too broadly effective.

Here is my proposed solution. This is a change to Where Did You Find This Guy?, GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 15: Henchmen, p. 29.

The base roll for finding a henchmen is IQ-3, instead of IQ. Skill rolls are unmodified.

As a secondary note, Loyalty rolls are made based on the hiring character. To quote DF15, p. 30:

"Make a reaction roll when a hireling first signs up. Apply the usual reaction modifiers of the hirer, who may be a PC or an NPC companion, and record the result. This number is effectively a new stat for hirelings: Loyalty."

So if the cleric (IQ 14) or wizard (IQ 15) goes out and hires a squire or killer, the roll for Loyalty is 3d6 plus or minus the net reaction modifier of the cleric or wizard. If the Knight (IQ 10) with Born War Leader 2 hires the same squire or killer, the roll gains a +2 for Born War Leader. Who they nominally are commanded by or working for doesn't matter, the actual hiring character matters.

Notes:

Why didn't I just do this when I wrote it? Well, I actually didn't write that section, that I recall. I believe it was purely Sean Punch, and it draws on GURPS Basic Set.

With this change and clarification, it should be clear that the best person for the job will almost always be the template closest to the specialty.

You can always keep the base IQ roll, give a bonus to Loyalty for higher skill - each level above IQ is worth +1. So a knight with Born War Leader 2, IQ 10, and Leadership-13 has a net +3 (+1 for Leadership at IQ+1, +2 for BWL 2, not double-counting BWL) on Loyalty. Compare that with a cleric with IQ 14 gaining a Loyalty bonus of +0. Or do both.

For Felltower, I chose to go with the IQ penalty, but I'm open to persuasion - and yes, I do roll Loyalty whenever danger arises or there is a need for some roll for bravery or loyalty. I just like the idea that specialists - and yes, Merchant works across the board - do better finding people than someone who is just intelligent.

Available Henchmen for Felltower?

For a while, the PCs hired a lot of henchmen. A good number have been killed. But some are still around . . . given that we've had some sessions get nixed because people lacked the firepower and players to want to risk their paper men, I figured I'd take a roll call.

Still around for hire, so many years on:

Basher the Thug (who is 11 years older than he was his last delve!)

Larry the Crossbowman (who won't lightly trust a wizard again, let me tell you.)

Norman the Axe (who won't accept a contract without some written guarantees for replacement of losses)

Deadeye Slim

And not many others . . . Lew McTorchy and Marc Strawngmussel are still alive as far as I can determine.

Red Raggi is the big one, of course, but after two consecutive maulings (in other words, deaths) and the PCs selling his prized axe, he basically hung up his armor and went back to his law practice. Ragnarson and Sons Legal Services still has an office in Stericksburg, run by a partner, but he's not making a lot of delves.

I do need to generate some more henchmen when I get a chance . . . they might provide some help when hired. The players do tend to want them to stay around forever and ever, though, which tends to grind them down and kill them eventually. A few more volunteers might show, too, if the PCs start bringing home some real loot . . .

OSE Best Supporting Actors Kickstarter - funded!

I meant to post this the other day, but here we are, better late than never.

Doug's OSE Best Supporting Actors Kickstarter has funded! $20 for the PDF and quick-reference cards and the usual host of upgrades from there.



It still has 12 days to go as I post this, but if you're interested I'd say go pledge now rather than later so Doug doesn't pull his hair out with worry.

Recruiting PCs and NPCs in DF Felltower

In DF Felltower, two things are true about recruiting:

- there always just enough 250 point guys in the world to justify a new PC, but not enough to justify recruiting a 250-point NPC to aid the PCs

- there are plenty of 62 point schleps out there willing to join bandit gangs, pirate crews, militias, cults with funny hats, and other organizations that fight delvers.

It's never an issue when a PC dies and someone wants a new guy. Fine. Or someone just wants to make a new paper man and play that guy for a while. Also fine! I won't argue unless there is something odd about the character. No "in town helper" guys - you can't make a 250-point optimized loot seller who sits in town and takes a percentage to resell loot, or a 250-point healer to fix wounds for free, or anything like that. Your delvers only help play when they actually get involved in play. But I'm not going to say no when you want a new guy, in general.

Also, no matter how many orcs you butcher, there are plenty of orcs who want to join the orcs. They're not going to die like those last two, ten, fifty. No way. Need more bandits? Plenty of guys ready to sign up! Cultists? Does it come with a funny hat and some coins? Sign me up!

This doesn't mean I automatically replenish losses one to one. I tend to make a formula. But until you destroy a group's center of gravity, they will keep recruiting. I was inspired for this by adventures like WG4 The Lost Temple of Tharizdun and T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil, which had specific guidelines for not only replacing losses but expanding the garrison of the locations. I always liked the idea of places that lived in the absence of the PCs. So my groups do that - and some of them slink away in the night with their loot when attacked ineffectively. And yes, some can't replace losses and just get ground down by attrition.

Even so, the second rule applies - there are a lot of schleps in the world to replace losses.

While this means PCs could, potentially, put together a small army of 62-point guys, given sufficient payment and inducement. But it would take some work to do, and continuous money to keep them together. Delvers don't have much of an infrastructure to recruit and maintain groups. They just don't. The few delvers that could, generally don't, and irregular pay, regular danger, poor treatment by the delvers, and ridiculous casualty rates take care of the rest. They can still be recruited delve to delve with some notice, mostly because I need to generate stats and VTT tokens and names for the new guys.

But yeah, want a new paper man? You got it, there is a 250 point guy out there and it's you. Your bandit foes need some more guards? There are a lot of 62 point guys out there all ready to sign on for glory! And thus the cycle of gaming continues . . . which is all these truths are about.

Random Links for Friday - 2/19/21

A few links from the past week I wanted to share:

- This is outstanding:

Stalingrad Project: Third and Final

- Hirelings. Always a topic I enjoy. I didn't weigh in here as it's really too original D&D specific for my experience, but I did enjoy reading it.

I have my own approach to hirelings, some of which you can see in DF 15, and some which I have out on this blog.

When Are Henchmen Appropriate?

Also this: How Much Info on Henchmen?

It's GURPS-specific, but I give people full character sheets for Allies, and enough info to run the character otherwise. I reserve the right to be lying on the record sheets.

- Spoke too soon on Dragonsraid:

Dragonraid Closer Look Part One

- I don't play The Fantasy Trip, but I do try to get the word about when Doug is doing a project. So here we are!

TFT Character Collections Kickstarter

- I'm reading this series on Universal Soldiers over at ACOUP. "The Face of Battle" was a really formative book for me, so this is a particularly interesting series for me.

- Hurting Wrong Fun anyone?

Felltower DF NPC: Brother Ike

By request, here is Brother Ike. Hjalmarr Holgerson bought him as an Ally, but sadly Ike died twice - the first time he was Resurrected, and the second time he was torn into shreds by a ravening eye and, at -10xHP, was dead permanently.

Brother Iklwa Juma Deswayo N'Zinga

Brother Iklwa, aka Brother Ike, is an acolyte of the Good God and is part of a brotherhood dedicated to Saint-in-Waiting Buyya Duad, the Thrice-Martyred. He was hired as a personal cleric to Hjalmarr Holgerson, who, upon each of his deaths, became increasingly more religious. He sought guidance from Brother Ike for his spiritual lessons.

175 point Initiate (see DF15)

ST 10 HP 10 Speed 5.25
DX 11 Will 13 Move 5
IQ 13 Per 13 BL 39 lbs.
HT 12 FP 12
Dodge 9 Parry (Axe/Mace) 11+DB Block 11+DB

Knobbed Club (13): 1d+1 cr; Reach 1.
Mallet (12): 1d+2 cr; Reach 1.

Traits: Charitable (12); Clerical Investment; Combat Medic 2; Energy Reserve (Holy) 5; Power Investiture (Holy) 4; Resistant to Disease (+3 to resist); Sense of Duty (Coreligionists); Vow (Chastity); Vow (No edged weapons); Vow (Own no more than what can be carried).

Perks: Huge Subjects (Major Healing)

Quirks: Full of parables about Saint-in-Waiting Buyya Duad.

Skills: Axe/Mace-13; Climbing-10; Diagnosis-11; Exorcism-12; First Aid-15; Gesture-13; Innate Attack (Beam)-12; Poisons-12; Religious Ritual (Good God)-12; Riding (Equines)-10; Search-12; Stealth-10; Surgery-10; Survival (Jungle)-12; Swimming-12; Theology (Good God)-12; Thrown Weapon (Axe/Mace)-12; Wrestling-11.

Spells: (15 unless otherwise noted) Awaken; Cleansing; Command; Continual Light; Detect Poison; Final Rest; Great Healing-14; Healing Slumber; Major Healing; Minor Healing; Neutralize Poison; Recover Energy-16; Relieve Madness; Remove Contagion; Resist Fire; Resist Lightning; Resist Poison; Restoration-14; Stone to Flesh; Stop Bleeding; Stop Paralysis; Sunbolt; Suspended Animation; Test Food; Truthsayer.

Gear: Backpack, Small; Blanket; First Aid Kit; High Holy Symbol; Iron Spike (x4); Leather Armor Suit; Ordinary Clothes; Paut (x4); Personal Basics; Potion Belt; Rations (x3); Sandals; Staff of Healing; Surgical Instruments; Wand of Holding; Wineskin w/gallon of water.

Felltower NPC: Varmus the Hanged

This is an NPC from DF Felltower. He's the ally of Aldwyn Hale and he's built with the 125-point Apprentice template from Dungeon Fantasy 15: Hirelings


Varmus the Hanged (135 points)

Varmus is a skinny, reedy man with a long beard and a raspy, terrible voice. He keeps to himself, generally, and invokes the technical letter of the law whenever possible to avoid situations he'd like to get out of. Or just to be difficult - it's not always clear. He recently lost some ST and gained Unfit and Wounded (Torso) after nearly being bisected by a giant and Resurrected on the cheap.

ST 9 HP 9 Speed 5
DX 11 Will 14 Move 5
IQ 14 Per 13
HT 11 FP 12
Dodge 8 Parry (Staff) 11

Quarterstaff (12): 1d+1 (swing) or 1d (thrust) crushing, Reach 1,2.

Traits: Disturbing Voice; Greedy (12); Magery 3; Night Vision 3; Skinny; Unfit; Wounded (Torso)

Perks: Mystic Guidance (Fireball).

Quirks: Distinctive Feature (Eyes reflect light like a cat's); nsists his stomach can only tolerate elven rations whike traveling; Legailistc (Obeys the *letter* of the law); Pyromania (Mild).

Skills: Alchemy-12; Body Sense-5 (default); Climbing-10; Fast-Draw (Potion)-12; Gesture-14; Hazardous Materials (Magical)-13; Hidden Lore (Elemental Lore)-14; Innate Attack (Projectile)-12; Meditation-12; Occultis-14; Philosophy (Magism)-12; Psychology (Elementals)-12; Search-12; Staff-12; Stealth-10; Thaumatology-15; Writing-13.

Spells (all skill 15 unless otherwise noted): Apportation; Counterspell; Create Fire; Detect Magic; Dispel Magic; Essential Flame; Extinguish Fire; Fireball; Fireproof; Flame Jet; Flaming Weapon; Heat; Ignite Fire; Iron Arm; Itch; Lend Energy; Mage Sight; Missile Shield; Pain; Rain of Fire; Recover Energy; Resist Cold; Resist Fire; Resist Pain; Shape Fire; Spasm; Warmth.

Equipment: Backpack, Small; Boots; Elven Rations (x3); Heavy Leather Corselet; Leather Gloves; Leather Helm (Full Face); Ordinary Clothes; Paut x2; Personal Basics; Potion Belt; Pouch; Power Item - 5000 sp gold necklace, 18 FP; Small Knife; Staff (with Staff spell); Wineskin (gallon of water).

Notes: Has $150.30 to his name.

Friday Links Post for 6/26

Random links for Friday!

- Ever wonder how a pressure plate works? Courtney might be able to help out. On the Thursday Trick, Triggers Pressure Plate. That's helpful to me, because I can design nasty traps but I don't really know enough to describe how they work. I might just be pulling stuff out of my imagination. Warning: Does not apply to combat footwork or grappling.

- After the Ogre talks about Allies vs. Hirelings. I like the limit on Allies. We've never had someone ask for a second Ally, but I think that's a good guideline.

- Hans wrote a nice article on the G11.

- Totally non-game related, but gamer related. Apparently there was a brief thing about picking a fight with someone 31 years older than you. Do you know who is 31 years older than my gaming buddy since high school, Tom? Chuck Norris. I don't like his odds. I'd tell Tom to take it to the ground, as Chuck is a Tang Soo Do expert . . . and Tom has both Ground Fighting (Wrestling) and the Ground Guard perk. But Chuck Norris is a black belt in BJJ originally from Jean Jacques Machado, so I'm not sure that's any better of an idea.

- This post reminds me of the book Queen Victoria's Little Wars. There are just so many small but interesting conflicts - either visually or tactically interesting or both - in this time period. The book is a good starting point for the whole series of wars that Edmund Blackadder mentioned involved saving people from particularly sharp slices of mango.

- I find treasure-rolling systems fascinating. I personally use a value-based system, so I get a total and back-fill what makes up that value. But still, I like them in general - AD&D for sure, Rolemaster had a great one that inspired me a lot, and everyone in the world liked rolling on the found objects table in Gamma World. One system I played around with and didn't like was 5e. I think this post explains why.

- I haven't played around with it, yet, but there is a GCA file for DFRPG. Since my campaign is more of a hybrid, I need to see if just adding that file on is a good idea. I suspect not. I might need to rebuild my data set around it, and add in my own changes (and imports from Basic Set and Magic, plus Wizardry Redefined) into their own file. I'd overlooked this file a while back, but a recent post on the thread alerted me. I don't hang around the forums anymore, but I do like to get pinged when GCA posts are up.

- This one is Felltower related - one of my players asked about fencing masks. We're not using them. Just getting that out there. I may have a whole post on why, at some point, but for now, no fencing masks from Denizens: Swashbucklers.

Making up an Ally NPC

One of the PCs in my Felltower game wants an Ally. Specifically, a wizard ally.

He gets to specify what he's looking for, and then I design the NPC.

I can sum this up in one phrase.

BwahahahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I followed the letter of the request as much as I could. I took his name inspiration from Jack Vance, after I saw how his disadvantages started to stack up. I had an okay name, but then I modified it a bit and made it very . . . very . . . Dell'Orto. It's that weird amalgam of Vance and Cook and my own linguistic amusement that leads to "Gort" or "Orcish Bob" or "Melchior the Malevolent."

Now if he passes muster - and I think he will, as my players have senses of humor - I just need to find an appropriate mini. Time to dig around.

Hopefully I can up a pic of the mini and the full stats of the NPC soon!

More Thoughts on 125-Pointers for Felltower

I'm still undecided on doing this, but it's tempting to try it out at least experimentally - allowing a secondary, 125-point base character to accompany your main character.

Benefits

The main benefits I see are:

In the Action More - it's harder to suffer from "save or sit there" effects, combat inujury, or even PC death when you have a second character to run.

Backup PCs on Hand - You also have a ready PC to move into a 250-point role. I'm not sure if I'd bolt on extra points to bring you up to 250 if your main guy dies or choose some other method, but you'd have a PC right there to develop.

- It's a fun twist, really. You get to make another PC, you get to try out some of the DF15 templates. I can see a lot of creative character generation and personalities come out of this kind of move.

Obstacles

The main obstacles to it that I see are:

Too many characters - we're not lacking in players or PCs at this point. A slow. small session is 5-6 people. We've had 9 fairly often. Since one of them is usually Gerry with his 5 skeletons and a skull spirit (usually), we're talking 10-15 minis in the marching order.

Adding 5-6 additional 125-point guys would mean this is easily 15-20.

This might have been a better idea back when the group was smaller.

Unresolved Questions - how many of these guys do you get? Are they interchangeable with each other? Can you have a pool and swap them in and out as needed, or are they tied to a specific PC? Can you loan them to each other? If there is a limit, what happens when one dies?

Are these essentially part of a communal pool for the player with regards to gear? As in, you can loan it back and forth without issue, and borrow it for Felltower delves while the other character is away?

Point cost? - Should it just be done as an Ally? Just fork over the 8 points for an Always Available 50% point value PC and be done with it? That would aid the players who can't be bothered - they won't be giving anything up and those that want them have to abide by the usual rules about Allies . . . except for it being a fully player generated and run PC. But then, why have an Ally as written now, if these are available?

There are issues to be worked out. But it's an idea worth exploring further.

The Meeposian Brothers

As requested, here are the Meeposian Brothers, straight out of GCA:

Name: Demitrios, Antonios, Leonatios of Meepos

Race: Human

 

Attributes [110]

ST 13 [30]

DX 13 [60]

IQ 10

HT 12 [20]

 

HP 13

Will 10

Per 10

FP 12

 

Basic Lift 34

Damage 1d/2d-1

 

Basic Speed 6 [-5]

Basic Move 7 [5]

 

Ground Move 7

Water Move 1

 

Social Background

TL: 3 [0]

Cultural Familiarities:

Languages: Common (Native) [0].

 

Advantages [20]

Combat Reflexes [15]

Enhanced Block (1) [5]

 

Perks [2]

Sacrificial Block [1]

Shield Wall Training [1]

 

Disadvantages [-40]

Chummy [-5]

Code of Honor (Soldier's) [-10]

Code of Honor (Stays Bought) [-5]

No Sense of Humor [-10]

Overconfidence (12 or less) [-5]

Sense of Duty (Adventuring companions) [-5]

 

Quirks [-2]

Never operate seperately [-1]

Worship the Saint of Fishes, St. Pesci [-1]

 

Packages [0]

Squire (Dungeon Fantasy) [0]

 

Skills [35]

Armoury/TL3 (Body Armor) IQ/A - IQ+0 10 [2]

Brawling DX/E - DX+0 13 [1]

Carousing HT/E - HT+0 12 [1]

Climbing DX/A - DX-1 12 [1]

Connoisseur (Weapons) IQ/A - IQ+0 10 [2]

Fast-Draw (Shortsword) DX/E - DX+1 14 [1]

includes: +1 from 'Combat Reflexes'

Gambling IQ/A - IQ-1 9 [1]

Gesture IQ/E - IQ+0 10 [1]

Heraldry IQ/A - IQ-1 9 [1]

Knife DX/E - DX+0 13 [1]

Leadership IQ/A - IQ-1 9 [1]

Shield (Shield) DX/E - DX+2 15 [4]

Shortsword DX/A - DX+1 14 [4]

Spear DX/A - DX+2 15 [8]

Stealth DX/A - DX-1 12 [1]

Sumo Wrestling DX/A - DX-1 12 [1]

Tactics IQ/H - IQ-1 9 [2]

Thrown Weapon (Spear) DX/E - DX+1 14 [2]

 

Stats [110]
Ads [20]
Disads [-40]
Quirks [-2]
Skills [35]
= Total [125]
 

 

Hand Weapons

1  Large Shield  LC:4  $190  Wgt:18.75 

    Bash  Dam:1d cr  Reach:1  Parry:No  ST:  Skill:ST:DX-4, SK:Shield (Buckler)-2, SK:Shield (Force)-2, SK:Shield (Shield)  Notes:[2,4] 

    Rush  Dam:slam+3 cr  Reach:1  Parry:No  ST:  Skill:ST:DX-4, SK:Shield (Buckler)-2, SK:Shield (Force)-2, SK:Shield (Shield)  Notes:[2,4] 

1  Shortsword  LC:4|4  $400  Wgt:2 

    Swing  Dam:2d-1 cut  Reach:1  Parry:11  ST:8  Skill:SK:Sword!, SK:Shortsword, ST:DX-5, SK:Broadsword-2, SK:Force Sword-4, SK:Jitte/Sai-3, SK:Knife-4, SK:Saber-4, SK:Smallsword-4, SK:Tonfa-3 

    Thrust  Dam:1d+1 imp  Reach:1  Parry:11  ST:8  Skill:SK:Sword!, SK:Shortsword, ST:DX-5, SK:Broadsword-2, SK:Force Sword-4, SK:Jitte/Sai-3, SK:Knife-4, SK:Saber-4, SK:Smallsword-4, SK:Tonfa-3 

1  Spear  LC:4|4|4  $200  Wgt:4 

    1H  Dam:1d+2 imp  Reach:1*  Parry:12  ST:10  Skill:SK:Spear, ST:DX-5, SK:Polearm-4, SK:Staff-2  Notes:[1] 

    2H  Dam:1d+3 imp  Reach:1, 2*  Parry:12  ST:9†  Skill:SK:Spear, ST:DX-5, SK:Polearm-4, SK:Staff-2  Notes:two hands 

 

Ranged Weapons

1  Spear  LC:4|4|4  Dam:1d+3 imp  Acc:2  Range:13 / 20 

    RoF:1  Shots:T(1)  ST:9  Bulk:-6  Rcl:-  $200  Wgt:4 

 

Armor & Possessions

1  Boots  $80  Wgt:3  Location:feet 

1  Gauntlets  $108  Wgt:1.5  Location:hands 

1  Leather Helm  $25  Wgt:.5  Location:skull, face 

1  Legionary Helmet  $165  Wgt:4.5  Location:skull, face 

1  Ordinary Clothes (Status +0)  $0  Wgt:2  Location: 

1  Scale Armor  $495  Wgt:26.25  Location:torso, groin 

1  Scale Leggings  $295  Wgt:15.75  Location:legs 

1  Scale Sleeves  $233  Wgt:10.5  Location:arms 

 

Gerry and the Skeletons

Gerry's player and I have known for a while that the pricing on his skeletons had become a bit wonky within GCA.

I spent a fair bit of time today adding in the necessary bits to GCA from DF9 to allow for proper pricing of Gerry's skeletal Ally Group. Not enough, as it killed 25%-and-up valued Allies, but I can add that back in when I have a little time again (and when it matters.)

Sadly this means some of the points he recently earned are likely needed to keep the group as-is, rather than upgrade them.

Currently he has an Ally Group (Built on 10% [0.4], Minion (+0%), Constantly Available (x4), Group Size 5 (x5) [8].

I gave him some options, some of which are:

- spend points to upgrade the whole group - going to 10 points for Group Size 6-10 would allow for 10 skeletons, or going to Built on 20% for 0.8 per would cost 8 more points but give them each another 30-35 points to improve their characteristics.

- downsize and upgrade the group - keep the point total the same (or increase it) and reduce the number of skeletons to allow for better ones. Instead of 8 points for 5 skeletons at 10% he could have 1 skeleton at 50% of his value. Or 2 at 25%.

- any combination of the above.

It's really accounting issues from GCA not having the right GDF file at the time we made him, and my own errors trying to end-run around it, that caused the cost issue. But it's high time we redressed that and also gave him a firm set of ideas for a path to upgrade.

A Stack of Corpses This High . . .

Last game session, we were talking about Felltower a bit before we did our Gamma Terra game. One the subjects that came up was casualties. The discussion about them isn't germane to this post. But in thinking about that, I idly took a look at the casualty list again. It's pretty big.

The lowest point player character on the list is 250.

The highest point is 534.

The fastest anyone died was session 1.

The longest lasting player character lasted almost 100 sessions and had delved for 7 years (2011-2018).

There are 31 PC names on the list. Many are multiples.

There are 40 NPCs on the list. Only two - Brother Ike and Red Raggi - are multiples.

That's a total of 71 killed in action in Felltower in 113 delves. That's 0.628 casualties per session. On a PC basis, it's 0.274 casualties per session. Obviously, they clump, and range from 0 to 19 per session. The most PCs killed in one session was 8.

So if I'm doing the math correct, for every 10 delves, it's likely that about 6 characters die, of which 2 or 3 will be PCs. That's about 1 PC death every 4 sessions, along with 2 and a 50/50 shot of losing another (2.5 lost per 4 delves.)

That's pretty awful.

Is Felltower (and its sister side locations) that lethal? Yes. I'm going with yes.

DF Felltower: Where are the hirelings at?

Recent play in Felltower hasn't featured many hirelings.

The last Ally featured was Brother Ike, who was chewed into a shower of gore and gobbets of flesh by a ravening eye. The last non-Ally NPC to delve was Raggi, who hasn't been actively sought after once it was clear that the dungeon's lethality has exceeded his ability to survive.



Some of this is the struggle of players to recognize what lower-point NPCs are good for.

But mostly, it's a feature of three things:


1) Too many PCs.

We're usually running at above 6 players per session. 8-9 isn't uncommon anymore. Because of that, the game just doesn't feature a lot of NPCs. The PCs don't seek them out, the offered potential loot is lower.


2) Too little GM time.

I don't have a lot of spare time. I don't sit around writing up NPCs. I specifically don't want to avail myself of the free time of my players to have them make up guys who just happen to be standing around town, waiting to get hired. The abuses in that are so obvious that spelling them out seems insulting to my audience and wasteful of the rest of my time.

But because of that, I don't have NPCs ready to go at the last minute. This means the players need to decide long in advance they want, say, a wizard or an archer or an acolyte. They usually want a loyal, cheap, highly effective healing priest. They'vew gotten 100% of them killed beyond Resurrection, though, so that's a tough call. Plus the group tends to maximize loot thresholds over fighting evil, which means the church isn't going to give them a bonus to the roll to encourage a priest to join them for certain eventual death.


3) Too dangerous.

For the same reason you haven't seen much of Raggi, you won't see much of 62-point hirelings and unknown point volunteers. It's very, very dangerous on the levels of Felltower the party is going to. Promised rewards haven't increased, but lethality has. In fact, actual rewards taken home by the NPCs has generally dropped. More of them have died, mostly permanently, and few of them have received anything like substantial rewards for the risk. Plus too many of the PCs have reputations for either attempting to murder the NPCs (the Barca family, for example) or short-shrifting NPCs who don't turn out to be decisively useful. A couple of PCs have positive modifiers thanks to Reputation, but net/net most of them have minuses.

So, much more risk of death for less reward than there was for less risk.


All in all, though, as much as I love hirelings, there isn't a lot of reason why they're going to show up. Unless the players and their PCs make a much more certain effort to attract them and retain them, it's likely to be a PC-only party for a while.

The fate of Hjalmarr's Ally advantage points

In our last session, Hjalmarr's ally, Brother Ike, was torn to shreds (to past -10xHP) by a Ravening Eye aka Eye Beast, one of the known eye monsters of Felltower.*

How does this affect Hjalmarr, and why?

How?

Hjalmarr had 8 points invested in Brother Ike - he was an always appearing NPC on 50% of his point total.

Those points are gone. Ike is dead beyond Resurrection and the PCs have no access to the kind of magic (for example, a wish) that would be able to bring him back or make him subject to Resurrection.

Why?

But wait, doesn't the Basic Set (p. B37) say, "If your Ally dies through no fault of yours, your GM will not penalize you. You may put the points spent on the deceased Ally toward a new Ally"?

Yes, yes it does.

But I feel like losing the points here is warranted.

First, is taking your ally in a megadungeon, leaving him in the back rank, and making some poor organizational and scouting decisions followed by poor tactical decisions "no fault of yours"?

I'm going to go with no. It sounds like a lot of the reason Ike is eyeburger is because of Hjalmarr.

Second, I feel like death in the course of normal adventuring is a reasonable way to lose points. You can permanently lose a limb, gain a disadvantage, pick up a new quirk (or many), get cursed, etc. So if you can lose points in this way, why not when your Ally gets eaten?

Third, if getting your Ally killed with bad choices and bad luck means you get the points back, why not risk your ally freely? It's essentially a way to cost-free swap one out. Don't deliberately get it killed, but put it where it gets killed, then pick a new and different one with a spell loadout/advantage list/whatever that suits you. It's actually a risk-free way to get a lot of points.

Speaking of which, fourth, Ally is a large power multiplier for the points you put in it. What you get for 4 or 8 character points is worth a lot more - 125+ points - than a +1 or +2 to a skill, +2 or +4 HP, not even +1 ST, etc. If that means you get more than you put in and normal misadventure or bad playing just means you get them back again or get another Ally, I think that's an unreasonable extra benefit.

Finally, some allies are deliberately set up to be disposable. I think it cheapens the upsides of them if non-disposable allies are effectively just persistent, not permanent.



Now, I know this isn't the RAW - and DF5 even allows for keeping the points if you deliberately get an Ally killed - but I think it suits the "GURPS DF on hard mode" style of my game.


* Along with the Eye of Death, Sphere of Madness, and rumored others!