So an NPC wizard threw Mass Sleep on the PCs in my game the session before last, and put one to sleep.
There is an oddity in Sleep, which is it's not an especially deep or magical sleep by its wording. It's just sleep, with the caveat that slumping down doesn't wake you up. You can contrast this with Daze, which leaves someone standing oblivious to all but who is much harder to rouse.
Let's compare:
Daze:
"Any injury, or successful resistance to a spell, causes the subject to snap out of the daze and return to full alert status."
GURPS Magic, p. 134
Sleep:
"He can be awakened by a blow, loud noise, etc., but will be mentally stunned (see Effects of Stun,p. B420). The Awaken spell (p. 90) will arouse him instantly."
GURPS Magic, p. 135
Nevermind the Morpheus (aka Sleep) elixir:
Morpheus:
"The subject must roll vs. HT-4 or fall instantly asleep. He sleeps for 16-HT hours, and may not be awakened by nonmagical means during that time."
GURPS Magic, p. 218
In a way, this makes Daze cheaper and more effective, which a problem for three reasons:
- asleep folks should be less aware and harder to arouse than people merely out of it.
- Daze is a prereq for Sleep, implying strongly that Sleep should work better than Daze.
- Sleep costs more to cast than Daze, further implying strongly that Sleep should work better than Daze.
Plus you can add on top the idea that the elixir version is vastly more potent than any spell, which isn't that uncommon in GURPS Magic but isn't something I am a fan of, either.
Yet for all of that, you can (by the spell as written) wake someone up with any damage, jostling, loud noises, or the Awaken spell. Sleep does last (potentially) much longer, as much as 8 hours, but it's a vastly more fragile spell to put on someone. It also gets rid of a potentially interesting use to cast on already-sleeping subjects to keep them under more deeply.
It's also a bit of a mess when combined with the wording of Awaken.
Awaken:
"Sleeping or unconscious subjects get a HT roll to awaken, at a bonus equal to the caster’s margin of success.
GURPS Magic, p. 90
Awaken can un-stun folks, too, but says nothing about Daze's effects. Nor is it 100% clear if Awaken's wording trumps Sleep's wording - does Awaken automatically wake up a Sleep spell victim, or does it allow a roll per Awaken's wording? I know my players favor automatic, but they use Awaken and not Sleep. They also argued that injury from low FP (losing HP instead of FP) was injury, and that all injury automatically wakes you up. I can see the logic in it, but then that means people under a Sleep spell wake up with a snap when hurt, breathing carbon monoxide, the poison fumes of a Stench spell, etc. but people who are just asleep without magic may not, or exhausted without being asleep might not, either.
I like the built-in duration effects of Morpheus, but not its inability to be countered without magic. It's too limiting, meaning only PC parties with a wizard with Awaken can shrug this off yet a wizard can't put someone that deeply to sleep. I think that makes the elixir a bit unfair, even for the cost.
Naturally, I'm going to unify the results a bit.
Here is the re-wording of the relevant portions of these spells for my game:
Daze: Any injury (even a 0-HP slap) or successful resistance to a spell, causes the subject to snap out of the daze and return to full alert status. A sufficiently loud noise (a Thunderclap spell, for example, or a nearby explosion) may allow a HT roll to snap out of it, at the referee's discretion.
Sleep: Any injury (even a 0-HP slap) or successful resistance to a spell, causes the subject to wake up, but he will be mentally stunned (see Effects of Stun, p. B420) unless woken with the Awaken spell. A sufficiently loud noise (a Thunderclap spell, for example, or a nearby explosion) may allow a HT roll to snap out of it, at the referee's discretion. The victim will sleep for 1 hour for each point by which he failed to resist (minimum 1 hour.)
Morpheus: The subject must roll vs. HT-4 or fall instantly asleep, exactly as the Sleep spell (see p. 135)
Awaken: Sleeping or unconscious subjects, including those under Daze or Sleep spells, get a HT roll to awaken, at a bonus equal to the caster’s margin of success.
Personally, I think that tidies up the effects. Sleep is more effective than before, which suits its cost, but lasts much less than its vague but potentially extremely long current duration. Daze now has more ways out, so you can't have to actually injure your friends to end the spell. The sleep elixir is now identical to the spell instead of being oddly powerful. And Awaken is broader and more effective against any of those three.
Not only that, but this is consistent with how I ran it last game on the fly when I realized the oddity.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Monday, January 6, 2014
Handing My Players the Map
Two sessions ago in my DF game, the PCs found a labyrinth and explored a little of it. Just enough to realize it was dangerous and time-consuming, so they backed off to leave it for the next session.
Last session, they spent most of their time trying to puzzle out the labyrinth. They gamely tried to map it, and because of the difficulty in doing so, ended up spending more time checking their location and backtracking and re-mapping then actually solving any puzzle aspects of the labyrinth.
Part of that was because the maze is a little confusing, but also because it's hard to describe, it's hard to settle on orientation (who is facing where when I say "left" or "right"). Not a little confusion was because I copied the labyrinth from someone else's megadungeon, because I liked it so much. (I can't say which, because it might spoil the surprise if any of my players have read it.) That guy uses a lot of "no thickness" walls - those pencil lines on graph paper than separate one room from another. My tunnel walls are almost all 10+ thick, so it was a real shift when the PCs confronted walls under a foot thick and 10' ahead meant well into the turn, not reaching the edge point.
So I offered them a chance to buy a 100% accurate, but incomplete, map of the labyrinth in town from a sage. Usual price for a sage, but out of game I assured them it would be correct, no roll.
Out of game, this spares me another session of "do you mean your right or our right?" "That can't be, it circles back to the door." "How can that be if I'm facing there?" and so on. It spares my players a session of trying to orient themselves, when their characters could, would, and should have a much better perspective on the maze.
The puzzle of the maze isn't the maze, per se, but the dangers in it and what they expect will be a reward for figuring it out. After all, the wizard they killed was fleeing to this labyrinth, and a rumor they'd heard backs up the idea it might be a good place to check out.
In game, the explanation is that the maze's layout had been drawn in a book, but until the PCs put out some description of the labyrinth it wasn't clear what the map was of. So they paid their money and got a copy of the map, assured to be accurate as far as it goes and done by the designers (or possibly previous users) of the maze.
Honestly, last session was fun but could have been much more fun had they gone in armed with the map. The danger is unchanged, but the out-of-game frustration of maze orientation is gone. It's not like the previous maze they'd dealt with, in which the confusing layout was the point. This has another point and giving them the map makes it easier on all of us to get to the fun.
I just wish I'd decided to do this and taken the time to make the map before last time. But what's done is done, and they've got the map now!
Last session, they spent most of their time trying to puzzle out the labyrinth. They gamely tried to map it, and because of the difficulty in doing so, ended up spending more time checking their location and backtracking and re-mapping then actually solving any puzzle aspects of the labyrinth.
Part of that was because the maze is a little confusing, but also because it's hard to describe, it's hard to settle on orientation (who is facing where when I say "left" or "right"). Not a little confusion was because I copied the labyrinth from someone else's megadungeon, because I liked it so much. (I can't say which, because it might spoil the surprise if any of my players have read it.) That guy uses a lot of "no thickness" walls - those pencil lines on graph paper than separate one room from another. My tunnel walls are almost all 10+ thick, so it was a real shift when the PCs confronted walls under a foot thick and 10' ahead meant well into the turn, not reaching the edge point.
So I offered them a chance to buy a 100% accurate, but incomplete, map of the labyrinth in town from a sage. Usual price for a sage, but out of game I assured them it would be correct, no roll.
Out of game, this spares me another session of "do you mean your right or our right?" "That can't be, it circles back to the door." "How can that be if I'm facing there?" and so on. It spares my players a session of trying to orient themselves, when their characters could, would, and should have a much better perspective on the maze.
The puzzle of the maze isn't the maze, per se, but the dangers in it and what they expect will be a reward for figuring it out. After all, the wizard they killed was fleeing to this labyrinth, and a rumor they'd heard backs up the idea it might be a good place to check out.
In game, the explanation is that the maze's layout had been drawn in a book, but until the PCs put out some description of the labyrinth it wasn't clear what the map was of. So they paid their money and got a copy of the map, assured to be accurate as far as it goes and done by the designers (or possibly previous users) of the maze.
Honestly, last session was fun but could have been much more fun had they gone in armed with the map. The danger is unchanged, but the out-of-game frustration of maze orientation is gone. It's not like the previous maze they'd dealt with, in which the confusing layout was the point. This has another point and giving them the map makes it easier on all of us to get to the fun.
I just wish I'd decided to do this and taken the time to make the map before last time. But what's done is done, and they've got the map now!
Sunday, January 5, 2014
DF Game Session 39, Felltower 30
January 5th, 2014
Weather: Very cold, heavy accumulated snow, occasionally sleet/ice pellets
Characters: (approximate net point total)
Chuck Morris, human martial artist (303 points)
Dryst, halfling wizard (324 points)
Father Hans, human cleric (130 points, NPC)
Shieldbearer Jon, human guard (62 points, NPC)
Vryce, human knight (401 points)
Lucky Pete - one-handed human guard (not many points, NPC), volunteer hireling
Gort - Dwarf of the Shining Force (??, Dwarf)
Still in town:
Borriz, dwarven knight (308 points)
Christoph, human scout (258 points)
Galen Longtread, human scout (327 points)
Galoob Jah, goblin thief (250 points)
Honus Honusson, human barbarian (297 points)
Red Raggi, human berserker (?? points, NPC)
We started the session, as usual, in Stericksburg. The group gathered rumors, bought some gear (mostly spellstones and healing potions), and headed out. They heard rumors, including one about a lost city somewhere deep in the dungeon, another about folks having used sections of the dungeon as burial grounds (complete with traps and occasional eternal guardians), and still another that Prince Valashkabash III of Cashamash offering 10 gold eagles for the location of the orc-king's lost tomb, 100 gold eagles for the orc-king's crown. They heard two about pools - one of the best booze in the world (but only drunk straight from the pool) and another about one you can dip swords in to give them (temporarily) a keen edge.
Raggi wasn't there (12 or less to show up, I rolled a 13), but two volunteers were around - Lucky Pete and Gort. They took them along.
This time they bypassed the orcs, digging out the bugbear's entrance and heading in that way, not wanting to share treasure (or knowledge) with the orcs and aiming to loot the wizard's lair. They took a side route through some secret doors but as they headed to the stairs down they ran into an orc guard post. The three orcs attacked and killed their scouting servant, but as they burst out of the room they ran into Vryce, Gort, and Chuck. In one second one was down, then Dryst silenced the yelling orcs as Gort and Chuck hacked down the other two. Gort got a lucky set of rolls and chopped the orc (barely), who blew his defense, and then rolled "Face" and maximum damage. Chop. Orc dropped.
The PCs looted them of their ready cash (some silver, some copper, one had 3 gold) and then tossed them down a nearby privy. No one mentioned finishing them off, but all had very severe injuries (the face-slashed one was the least injured) and probably didn't survive the 10' fall to the refuse below.
The group headed out and down, especially quickly after hearing orc sounds in the other direction. Once down, they quickly moved into the wizard's area after crowbarring through a barred door in the statue room (while Silenced, to avoid alerting anyone.)
They moved into the "wizard's area" - centered on the lens room and the maze.
First, they investigated the maze, trying their best to map it out. They found a dead end, marked with a glowing rune about 6" tall on the wall (I wrote "floor" last time, in error), in the Elder Tongue, that translated as "transport." They sent a servant up to take a rubbing, trace the rune, and otherwise fiddle with it, without any effect. But then, the decided it would only activate with real person activating it. So they got ready, and Vryce activated the rune after Dryst tried (and failed) to Wild Talent Telepathy so they could find out where he was transported to.
Sadly, it wasn't what it said it was. Instead of transporting Vryce, instead it set off a magical trap which SLAMMED down a crushing force down onto the group. It did 37 damage (10d!) to everyone, large area injury. This spelled doom for a good part of the group. Lucky Pete was slammed down to -24 HP and rolled a 16 on his death check - dead! Gort took a similar amount but thanks to his higher HP total and a better HT, he (barely) made the check and survived. Same with Shieldbearer Jon, who was smitten unconscious but was still barely alive. Father Hans wasn't so lucky, failing his HT check by a lot (he's only HT 10, and that caught up to him) - dead. Dryst (7 HP) had to make multiple death checks, and failed the second by 2 . . . mortally wounded. Chuck (who, along with Vryce, was hurt but not terribly so) rushed forward to try to stabilize him with Esoteric Medicine. He failed.
I ruled they could give him a second chance at a die-or-not HT roll if they got him to full HP. So they crushed a few spellstones against Dryst, and then fed him a Minor Healing potion. He got his roll, and made it. He also made his roll to avoid long-term consequences from his near-death experience.
As they did this, a squishing, slurping noise came close to them - a gelatinous cube was moving in on them! Vryce hacked it apart - it took only a couple seconds, but he managed to hack it apart before it could either move in on the dead/injured or back off once he started in on it.
Meanwhile, Chuck fed Gort healing potions and bandaged up Jon enough to keep him alive.
They left the unconscious Jon and the dead behind and explored more. They had some real difficulty navigating the maze, because it's hard to describe and confusing in layout (everything in the metallic maze looks the same.) They found more of the runes, but touched none - although they had a servant try and determine that, like the other, nothing happened. They chalked up the death last time to a gelatinous cube.
After trying to find all the runes and getting turned around a few times, they closed off their map as best they could and headed out.
They took a detour into the "flaming skulls" room and killed them off. We didn't even roll - they had Chuck and Vryce with magic weapons that seemed to be efficacious against them, and Dryst used Resist Fire on all three PCs (and put Gort to guard the door). Since the skulls couldn't do damage and wouldn't flee, it was just a matter of time. We declared them dead and moved on. They mapped out the area - it was clearly a prison, and See Secrets showed nothing hidden.
They went back to the lens room. They fiddled with the repelling doors (which bounced lightning, and a thrown coin, equally easily). They spent a good bit of time with the lenses, turning them around and setting them up for rebound shots. They threw lightning in a way to hit all the lenses and then into the labyrinth, both with Vryce in there (with Resist Lightning on) and not in there, trying to see where the lightning ricocheted, hoping it would lead them to the true rune. No such luck. Reflecting lightning into the repelling doors didn't do anything, either, and Identify Spell during a reflection came up with an unknown magic.
After a lot of time messing around, they headed it. Chuck's player had to leave early, and it was clear they didn't have any more ideas and no one wanted to explore new territory at the end of a session. They turned everyone invisible (a 4 on one casting helped a lot), and headed out the dungeon carrying their wounded (Jon) and dead (Hans, Lucky Pete) to the surface.
They made it out, spotting some evidence the orc corpses had been removed from the privy. They moved on and out.
Once on the surface they did their best to put snow back in front of the "secret" entrance and then headed back to town.
Father Hans was turned over to the church, Lucky Pete to the poor man's grave pit, and Jon set up to heal.
Not much accomplished this session, but still, it wasn't a bad day of gaming.
Notes:
XP base is 5 for a trip, -1 for unprofitable, -1 for dead PCs/major henchmen, -1 for minimal exploration = 2 points for this session. No MVP, either, since no one felt like anyone had done anything to deserve it.
The group retroactively gave Basher 50 sp for last session, since they just forgot in the rush to get home.
Ironically, we had some combat rules we wanted to test out today, but nothing came up. The orc fight was too brief for them to come up, the flaming skulls fight wasn't even worth rolling dice for since they couldn't harm the PCs and the PCs could easily harm them.
Lucky Pete suffered the fate of all guys I write up stats for, I guess. He had a good run, and he should have been a helpless cripple once before. Still, it's sad to see him go.
Father Hans, too - the group would have gotten his resurrected, but it is 15,000 sp ($15K) to do, and no one had anything close to that. So that was that - it's possible the church might spring for it because he's such a powerful healer (Faith Healing, Power Investiture 4), but his adventuring days are over in either case. The PCs looted him of the potions and potion belt they'd gotten him, but otherwise returned him to the church with everything he came with.
I joked off-hand that I should have had someone sell them a map of the labyrinth for 1000 sp. They said they'd have paid it. That's not actually a terrible idea. The issue with a labyrinth like this is that it's hard to describe, map, and visualize, not that it's so terribly confusing if you're actually there. So maybe I will have someone offer a reasonably accurate map for sale, since it's certainly plausible they exist. The challenge with the maze is the runes, not the layout, exactly. We'll see. Had I done so I expect this session might have been more productive and thus more fun, and I'm sorry I didn't think of this and follow through on it before.
Weather: Very cold, heavy accumulated snow, occasionally sleet/ice pellets
Characters: (approximate net point total)
Chuck Morris, human martial artist (303 points)
Dryst, halfling wizard (324 points)
Father Hans, human cleric (130 points, NPC)
Shieldbearer Jon, human guard (62 points, NPC)
Vryce, human knight (401 points)
Lucky Pete - one-handed human guard (not many points, NPC), volunteer hireling
Gort - Dwarf of the Shining Force (??, Dwarf)
Still in town:
Borriz, dwarven knight (308 points)
Christoph, human scout (258 points)
Galen Longtread, human scout (327 points)
Galoob Jah, goblin thief (250 points)
Honus Honusson, human barbarian (297 points)
Red Raggi, human berserker (?? points, NPC)
We started the session, as usual, in Stericksburg. The group gathered rumors, bought some gear (mostly spellstones and healing potions), and headed out. They heard rumors, including one about a lost city somewhere deep in the dungeon, another about folks having used sections of the dungeon as burial grounds (complete with traps and occasional eternal guardians), and still another that Prince Valashkabash III of Cashamash offering 10 gold eagles for the location of the orc-king's lost tomb, 100 gold eagles for the orc-king's crown. They heard two about pools - one of the best booze in the world (but only drunk straight from the pool) and another about one you can dip swords in to give them (temporarily) a keen edge.
Raggi wasn't there (12 or less to show up, I rolled a 13), but two volunteers were around - Lucky Pete and Gort. They took them along.
This time they bypassed the orcs, digging out the bugbear's entrance and heading in that way, not wanting to share treasure (or knowledge) with the orcs and aiming to loot the wizard's lair. They took a side route through some secret doors but as they headed to the stairs down they ran into an orc guard post. The three orcs attacked and killed their scouting servant, but as they burst out of the room they ran into Vryce, Gort, and Chuck. In one second one was down, then Dryst silenced the yelling orcs as Gort and Chuck hacked down the other two. Gort got a lucky set of rolls and chopped the orc (barely), who blew his defense, and then rolled "Face" and maximum damage. Chop. Orc dropped.
The PCs looted them of their ready cash (some silver, some copper, one had 3 gold) and then tossed them down a nearby privy. No one mentioned finishing them off, but all had very severe injuries (the face-slashed one was the least injured) and probably didn't survive the 10' fall to the refuse below.
The group headed out and down, especially quickly after hearing orc sounds in the other direction. Once down, they quickly moved into the wizard's area after crowbarring through a barred door in the statue room (while Silenced, to avoid alerting anyone.)
They moved into the "wizard's area" - centered on the lens room and the maze.
First, they investigated the maze, trying their best to map it out. They found a dead end, marked with a glowing rune about 6" tall on the wall (I wrote "floor" last time, in error), in the Elder Tongue, that translated as "transport." They sent a servant up to take a rubbing, trace the rune, and otherwise fiddle with it, without any effect. But then, the decided it would only activate with real person activating it. So they got ready, and Vryce activated the rune after Dryst tried (and failed) to Wild Talent Telepathy so they could find out where he was transported to.
Sadly, it wasn't what it said it was. Instead of transporting Vryce, instead it set off a magical trap which SLAMMED down a crushing force down onto the group. It did 37 damage (10d!) to everyone, large area injury. This spelled doom for a good part of the group. Lucky Pete was slammed down to -24 HP and rolled a 16 on his death check - dead! Gort took a similar amount but thanks to his higher HP total and a better HT, he (barely) made the check and survived. Same with Shieldbearer Jon, who was smitten unconscious but was still barely alive. Father Hans wasn't so lucky, failing his HT check by a lot (he's only HT 10, and that caught up to him) - dead. Dryst (7 HP) had to make multiple death checks, and failed the second by 2 . . . mortally wounded. Chuck (who, along with Vryce, was hurt but not terribly so) rushed forward to try to stabilize him with Esoteric Medicine. He failed.
I ruled they could give him a second chance at a die-or-not HT roll if they got him to full HP. So they crushed a few spellstones against Dryst, and then fed him a Minor Healing potion. He got his roll, and made it. He also made his roll to avoid long-term consequences from his near-death experience.
As they did this, a squishing, slurping noise came close to them - a gelatinous cube was moving in on them! Vryce hacked it apart - it took only a couple seconds, but he managed to hack it apart before it could either move in on the dead/injured or back off once he started in on it.
Meanwhile, Chuck fed Gort healing potions and bandaged up Jon enough to keep him alive.
They left the unconscious Jon and the dead behind and explored more. They had some real difficulty navigating the maze, because it's hard to describe and confusing in layout (everything in the metallic maze looks the same.) They found more of the runes, but touched none - although they had a servant try and determine that, like the other, nothing happened. They chalked up the death last time to a gelatinous cube.
After trying to find all the runes and getting turned around a few times, they closed off their map as best they could and headed out.
They took a detour into the "flaming skulls" room and killed them off. We didn't even roll - they had Chuck and Vryce with magic weapons that seemed to be efficacious against them, and Dryst used Resist Fire on all three PCs (and put Gort to guard the door). Since the skulls couldn't do damage and wouldn't flee, it was just a matter of time. We declared them dead and moved on. They mapped out the area - it was clearly a prison, and See Secrets showed nothing hidden.
They went back to the lens room. They fiddled with the repelling doors (which bounced lightning, and a thrown coin, equally easily). They spent a good bit of time with the lenses, turning them around and setting them up for rebound shots. They threw lightning in a way to hit all the lenses and then into the labyrinth, both with Vryce in there (with Resist Lightning on) and not in there, trying to see where the lightning ricocheted, hoping it would lead them to the true rune. No such luck. Reflecting lightning into the repelling doors didn't do anything, either, and Identify Spell during a reflection came up with an unknown magic.
After a lot of time messing around, they headed it. Chuck's player had to leave early, and it was clear they didn't have any more ideas and no one wanted to explore new territory at the end of a session. They turned everyone invisible (a 4 on one casting helped a lot), and headed out the dungeon carrying their wounded (Jon) and dead (Hans, Lucky Pete) to the surface.
They made it out, spotting some evidence the orc corpses had been removed from the privy. They moved on and out.
Once on the surface they did their best to put snow back in front of the "secret" entrance and then headed back to town.
Father Hans was turned over to the church, Lucky Pete to the poor man's grave pit, and Jon set up to heal.
Not much accomplished this session, but still, it wasn't a bad day of gaming.
Notes:
XP base is 5 for a trip, -1 for unprofitable, -1 for dead PCs/major henchmen, -1 for minimal exploration = 2 points for this session. No MVP, either, since no one felt like anyone had done anything to deserve it.
The group retroactively gave Basher 50 sp for last session, since they just forgot in the rush to get home.
Ironically, we had some combat rules we wanted to test out today, but nothing came up. The orc fight was too brief for them to come up, the flaming skulls fight wasn't even worth rolling dice for since they couldn't harm the PCs and the PCs could easily harm them.
Lucky Pete suffered the fate of all guys I write up stats for, I guess. He had a good run, and he should have been a helpless cripple once before. Still, it's sad to see him go.
Father Hans, too - the group would have gotten his resurrected, but it is 15,000 sp ($15K) to do, and no one had anything close to that. So that was that - it's possible the church might spring for it because he's such a powerful healer (Faith Healing, Power Investiture 4), but his adventuring days are over in either case. The PCs looted him of the potions and potion belt they'd gotten him, but otherwise returned him to the church with everything he came with.
I joked off-hand that I should have had someone sell them a map of the labyrinth for 1000 sp. They said they'd have paid it. That's not actually a terrible idea. The issue with a labyrinth like this is that it's hard to describe, map, and visualize, not that it's so terribly confusing if you're actually there. So maybe I will have someone offer a reasonably accurate map for sale, since it's certainly plausible they exist. The challenge with the maze is the runes, not the layout, exactly. We'll see. Had I done so I expect this session might have been more productive and thus more fun, and I'm sorry I didn't think of this and follow through on it before.
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Expunging Unnecessary Die Rolls
There is a nice and thought-provoking post about gamers and RPG design over on RPG Snob.
One thing he mentions is the notion that players do, actually, want to roll dice. Minimizing die rolls can get fetishized a bit in game design, yet rolling dice is fun, fun enough to sing about.
Yet I tend to very strongly take the approach in my games (writing or playing) that you want to minimize the die-rolling.
At the same time, I think die-rolling is a lot of fun, and I like to make things into die rolls when I can.
This may seem a bit of a contradiction. but it's not - my goal is to eliminate all unnecessary die rolls. Die rolls which don't add to the fun.
For example, I created a couple of Perks for GURPS that get rid of Fast-Draw rolls for Dungeon Fantasy archers. Why? Because it was a lot of extra rolls, and succeeding was routine and failure was not-fun. So all the rolls did was take time, and no one enjoyed the game more for them.
I've eliminated some fun die rolls from my games - no more critical hit table rolls, we use a simpler system. But the tradeoff was necessary. We got rid of that fun (roll on the table, see what cool stuff happens!) to speed up play (do more stuff instead! More fights overall!) and found it was a net increase in fun. It's like skipping to hit and damage rolls on helpless foes and declaring them dead - you don't add enjoyment by adding those rolls, so dump them.
At the same time, I've added die rolls to my games. We roll for rumors. We roll to see what gear is around when you go to buy stuff. Why? Fun rolls. Success is good, failure is groan-worthy, and the die rolls all have real impact.
I feel the same about table lookups - if you have a choice between mechanism A (which is complex, and requires a table lookup) and B (which is more simple, and does not), and they are equally fun, go with B. Generally if I'm not sure, I go with B. Better a smoother, faster, simpler system that doesn't make you look stuff up (saves time spent doing bookkeeping, not gaming). A chart lookup can be fun, but it has to be more fun than not looking it up.
So it's not that rolling dice is bad - far from it. But rolling when it's not necessary and you can make a mechanism which does more in less rolls, that's bad. Rolling when it adds fun to roll, that's good.
And that's how I roll.
(Sorry)
One thing he mentions is the notion that players do, actually, want to roll dice. Minimizing die rolls can get fetishized a bit in game design, yet rolling dice is fun, fun enough to sing about.
Yet I tend to very strongly take the approach in my games (writing or playing) that you want to minimize the die-rolling.
At the same time, I think die-rolling is a lot of fun, and I like to make things into die rolls when I can.
This may seem a bit of a contradiction. but it's not - my goal is to eliminate all unnecessary die rolls. Die rolls which don't add to the fun.
For example, I created a couple of Perks for GURPS that get rid of Fast-Draw rolls for Dungeon Fantasy archers. Why? Because it was a lot of extra rolls, and succeeding was routine and failure was not-fun. So all the rolls did was take time, and no one enjoyed the game more for them.
I've eliminated some fun die rolls from my games - no more critical hit table rolls, we use a simpler system. But the tradeoff was necessary. We got rid of that fun (roll on the table, see what cool stuff happens!) to speed up play (do more stuff instead! More fights overall!) and found it was a net increase in fun. It's like skipping to hit and damage rolls on helpless foes and declaring them dead - you don't add enjoyment by adding those rolls, so dump them.
At the same time, I've added die rolls to my games. We roll for rumors. We roll to see what gear is around when you go to buy stuff. Why? Fun rolls. Success is good, failure is groan-worthy, and the die rolls all have real impact.
I feel the same about table lookups - if you have a choice between mechanism A (which is complex, and requires a table lookup) and B (which is more simple, and does not), and they are equally fun, go with B. Generally if I'm not sure, I go with B. Better a smoother, faster, simpler system that doesn't make you look stuff up (saves time spent doing bookkeeping, not gaming). A chart lookup can be fun, but it has to be more fun than not looking it up.
So it's not that rolling dice is bad - far from it. But rolling when it's not necessary and you can make a mechanism which does more in less rolls, that's bad. Rolling when it adds fun to roll, that's good.
And that's how I roll.
(Sorry)
Friday, January 3, 2014
Writing, Writing, Writing
I've spent a good chunk of the past two days - effectively days off - writing GURPS stuff. Not for my game, exactly, but finishing up two co-writing projects with Douglas Cole.
What started as "I'll do a quick pass over the draft" for an project we're writing turned into hours of writing, then a few hours of Doug writing, and then passing it back to me for more writing. Same today.
It's DF related, as is the other one we finally got into "submit for comment" state. We will see what comes of either of them.
Writing is fun, really, and I love seeing something come together and feeling the words just flow out to make rules read in a sensible and understandable form.
At the same time, I'm glad we've gotten to where we are. One of these has elements I need to playtest heavily, and I already have to okay from my most rules-concerned players* to give them a try.
But man it's nice to thing, okay, "what's next to start?" and "let's see how it plays out in actual use" and not "I need to crank out another 1,000 words on this subject and check all the rules references to ensure consistency."
* I'd say rules lawyers, but they're more like rules advocates for the GM. They typically start sentences with things like "I think the rules let me do this, but they shouldn't . . . " They'll abuse things if I tell them that yes, it's supposed to be abused in that way. If not, they'll cheerfully cooperate on fixing it.
What started as "I'll do a quick pass over the draft" for an project we're writing turned into hours of writing, then a few hours of Doug writing, and then passing it back to me for more writing. Same today.
It's DF related, as is the other one we finally got into "submit for comment" state. We will see what comes of either of them.
Writing is fun, really, and I love seeing something come together and feeling the words just flow out to make rules read in a sensible and understandable form.
At the same time, I'm glad we've gotten to where we are. One of these has elements I need to playtest heavily, and I already have to okay from my most rules-concerned players* to give them a try.
But man it's nice to thing, okay, "what's next to start?" and "let's see how it plays out in actual use" and not "I need to crank out another 1,000 words on this subject and check all the rules references to ensure consistency."
* I'd say rules lawyers, but they're more like rules advocates for the GM. They typically start sentences with things like "I think the rules let me do this, but they shouldn't . . . " They'll abuse things if I tell them that yes, it's supposed to be abused in that way. If not, they'll cheerfully cooperate on fixing it.
Thursday, January 2, 2014
GURPS 101: IQ, Will, and Perception
This is part of a multi-blog series on the basic and secondary attributes in GURPS. If you're new to the system, what are some things you'll want to think about? GURPS is point buy, so it's not up to the dice, but up to you and your point budget to determine your stats. Today we're lookin at the third of those stats - IQ - and its secondary traits - Will and Perception.
Also see posts on Gaming Ballistic, Ravens 'n' Pennies, and the GURPS 101 page.
How much IQ do you need?
IQ, like DX, is a multi-part attribute. In and of itself it is useful, but the secondary characteristics Will and Perception are directly derived from it. It's not cheap - 20/level - so your goal should be to determine how much you need based on your skills.
IQ provides your base for a large swath of mental skills - generally the ones that depend on knowledge (Science skills, Hidden Lore, Lockpicking in a realistic game, etc.) or mental acuity (Merchant, Fast-Talk) or both. It is also the base stat for spells, making it a critical element of a well-built mage.
To some degree you can avoid the need for a high IQ with Talents, which give pluses to skills over and above the base attribute. But for a generalist, or where you have too disparate a skill set, and/or you've maxed out your talent (this happens a lot with mages), you'll want a solid IQ.
GURPS also has a few places where you need to make straight IQ rolls. One particularly nasty example is mental stunning from Total Surprise (p. B393). You need to roll IQ to snap out of the shock of a completely surprising attack. Partial Surprise allows a cumulative bonus to snap out of it (since you're not totally unready for action), and Combat Reflexes can make the rolls trivially easy, but IQ is still a factor. You'll also need to make IQ rolls to avoid being fooled in combat, pull off a Ruse (Martial Arts, p. 00). IQ helps you unjam guns (p. B407), too. The list isn't exhaustive, but those are some examples of why it's useful to be smart - or at least, dangerous to be stupid, regardless of what kind of guy you're making.
In general, a good IQ is important, but plenty of folks get by with little or no additional IQ, simply through using Talents and specializing in non-mental skills. Per and Will are cheap enough on their own if you need a lot of them, and you can save 10 points by skipping out on IQ. But if you're going that route and expect combat, you will need Combat Reflexes to avoid standing around during surprise attacks.
Hey, I'm old-school, so the PC is just as smart as the player. In GURPS, this isn't entirely true. It's bad roleplaying to take IQ 7 and play your guy as a genius. But beyond that, GURPS is a skill-based system so how your guy executes his attempts is roll-based. A smart guy is going to succeed at brainy stuff more often - whether it is deciphering the code, picking the lock, spotting a Ruse, or snapping out of surprise. Like physical actions, GURPS leaves the decision of what to try up to the player but the success of execution up to the PC and the dice.
Now, on to the derived characteristics.
How much Perception?
Perception is what lets you see things, hear things, taste things, and otherwise sense things.
There are also a solid number of Per-based skills. Per-based Traps lets you spot traps. Survival is Per-based, because living in the wilderness is as much what you notice as what you know. Per-based skills like Search and Observation let you scope out the bad guys or find that stuff the smuggler hid so cleverly. Tracking is Per-based, too, and lets you follow folks like Aragorn does in the movies. Per is your defense against sneaky foes, too, as Per will let you see or hear intruders.
Perception also lets you hear invisible foes well enough to take a shot at them (or attempt a defense), see the ambushers so far out it's not an ambush so much as a partly-hidden defensive position, or smell the dangerous gas before it's too late.
Per is only 5/level, too.
So how much do you need? At 5/level it only takes two Per-based skills to make it worth increasing, and the flat bonus to sense checks that gives you is important. No outdoorsy type, sniper, or point man should be without a lot of Per.
Occasionally PCs will sell back some of their Per as a disadvantage - the Wizard template in Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers does that. It's not a bad strategy if your character is meant to be brainy but not especially keen-sensed. But like selling back anything, you should be really certain you don't need it.
How much Will?
Will, like Per, is only 5/level. It is the basis of a few interesting skills, too - largely cinematic martial arts skills like Power Blow, or tough guy skills like Intimidation. If you want to be Chiun, you need a good Will score.
Will is critical for resisting a great many magical attacks and Psi powers. Will lets you shrug off exhaustion and keep going, or stay up late. It helps you resist hallucinations or drowsiness. It resists Influence rolls, and it is the score you roll against for Fright Checks. In a fantasy or sci-fi game with supernatural powers, you are going to be unhappy with a low Will score.
Like Per, you could sell back some Will as a disadvantage, but I've never personally seen in done in my games.
Will and the Rule of 16 - One important thing to know is the Rule of 16. Basically, the avoid "automatic victory over resistance" by getting extremely high Will-resisted attack spells, the Rule of 16 applies. Basically, the attack is capped at 16, or equal to the defender's score. So getting Will 16 makes the best chance of success against you from things like hostile spells a 50/50 prospect. Modifiers can hose you here, of course, but it's worth realizing that extremely high Will is effectively capped in utility, but so is the offense against you.
Overall, IQ is a good buy for anyone with a well-rounded set of mental skills. Will and Per are better purchases, alone or in conjunction with IQ, for folks with a more focused set of mental skills. Or for those who just need to spot things (scouts, guards) or shrug off influence and supernatural attack (everyone in a fantasy game.)
Also see posts on Gaming Ballistic, Ravens 'n' Pennies, and the GURPS 101 page.
How much IQ do you need?
IQ, like DX, is a multi-part attribute. In and of itself it is useful, but the secondary characteristics Will and Perception are directly derived from it. It's not cheap - 20/level - so your goal should be to determine how much you need based on your skills.
IQ provides your base for a large swath of mental skills - generally the ones that depend on knowledge (Science skills, Hidden Lore, Lockpicking in a realistic game, etc.) or mental acuity (Merchant, Fast-Talk) or both. It is also the base stat for spells, making it a critical element of a well-built mage.
To some degree you can avoid the need for a high IQ with Talents, which give pluses to skills over and above the base attribute. But for a generalist, or where you have too disparate a skill set, and/or you've maxed out your talent (this happens a lot with mages), you'll want a solid IQ.
GURPS also has a few places where you need to make straight IQ rolls. One particularly nasty example is mental stunning from Total Surprise (p. B393). You need to roll IQ to snap out of the shock of a completely surprising attack. Partial Surprise allows a cumulative bonus to snap out of it (since you're not totally unready for action), and Combat Reflexes can make the rolls trivially easy, but IQ is still a factor. You'll also need to make IQ rolls to avoid being fooled in combat, pull off a Ruse (Martial Arts, p. 00). IQ helps you unjam guns (p. B407), too. The list isn't exhaustive, but those are some examples of why it's useful to be smart - or at least, dangerous to be stupid, regardless of what kind of guy you're making.
In general, a good IQ is important, but plenty of folks get by with little or no additional IQ, simply through using Talents and specializing in non-mental skills. Per and Will are cheap enough on their own if you need a lot of them, and you can save 10 points by skipping out on IQ. But if you're going that route and expect combat, you will need Combat Reflexes to avoid standing around during surprise attacks.
Hey, I'm old-school, so the PC is just as smart as the player. In GURPS, this isn't entirely true. It's bad roleplaying to take IQ 7 and play your guy as a genius. But beyond that, GURPS is a skill-based system so how your guy executes his attempts is roll-based. A smart guy is going to succeed at brainy stuff more often - whether it is deciphering the code, picking the lock, spotting a Ruse, or snapping out of surprise. Like physical actions, GURPS leaves the decision of what to try up to the player but the success of execution up to the PC and the dice.
Now, on to the derived characteristics.
How much Perception?
Perception is what lets you see things, hear things, taste things, and otherwise sense things.
There are also a solid number of Per-based skills. Per-based Traps lets you spot traps. Survival is Per-based, because living in the wilderness is as much what you notice as what you know. Per-based skills like Search and Observation let you scope out the bad guys or find that stuff the smuggler hid so cleverly. Tracking is Per-based, too, and lets you follow folks like Aragorn does in the movies. Per is your defense against sneaky foes, too, as Per will let you see or hear intruders.
Perception also lets you hear invisible foes well enough to take a shot at them (or attempt a defense), see the ambushers so far out it's not an ambush so much as a partly-hidden defensive position, or smell the dangerous gas before it's too late.
Per is only 5/level, too.
So how much do you need? At 5/level it only takes two Per-based skills to make it worth increasing, and the flat bonus to sense checks that gives you is important. No outdoorsy type, sniper, or point man should be without a lot of Per.
Occasionally PCs will sell back some of their Per as a disadvantage - the Wizard template in Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers does that. It's not a bad strategy if your character is meant to be brainy but not especially keen-sensed. But like selling back anything, you should be really certain you don't need it.
How much Will?
Will, like Per, is only 5/level. It is the basis of a few interesting skills, too - largely cinematic martial arts skills like Power Blow, or tough guy skills like Intimidation. If you want to be Chiun, you need a good Will score.
Will is critical for resisting a great many magical attacks and Psi powers. Will lets you shrug off exhaustion and keep going, or stay up late. It helps you resist hallucinations or drowsiness. It resists Influence rolls, and it is the score you roll against for Fright Checks. In a fantasy or sci-fi game with supernatural powers, you are going to be unhappy with a low Will score.
Like Per, you could sell back some Will as a disadvantage, but I've never personally seen in done in my games.
Will and the Rule of 16 - One important thing to know is the Rule of 16. Basically, the avoid "automatic victory over resistance" by getting extremely high Will-resisted attack spells, the Rule of 16 applies. Basically, the attack is capped at 16, or equal to the defender's score. So getting Will 16 makes the best chance of success against you from things like hostile spells a 50/50 prospect. Modifiers can hose you here, of course, but it's worth realizing that extremely high Will is effectively capped in utility, but so is the offense against you.
Overall, IQ is a good buy for anyone with a well-rounded set of mental skills. Will and Per are better purchases, alone or in conjunction with IQ, for folks with a more focused set of mental skills. Or for those who just need to spot things (scouts, guards) or shrug off influence and supernatural attack (everyone in a fantasy game.)
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Muppet Labs Magic: Door in a Jar
I wasn't aware of this nifty item from Muppets from Space until today. Here it is in GURPS DF terms and generically DnDish terms, as well.
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy
Door In A Jar (Grenade). This jar of greenish slime is thrown against a wall. It creates a door, 7' tall by 3' wide in a wall up to 4 yards thick. The door lasts for 10 seconds, and allows travels in both directions. It is otherwise identical to the Create Door spell. $3,000, 1 lb.
Generically D&D compatible
Door in a Jar. This jar of greenish slime is thrown against a wall. It creates a door, 7' tall by 3' wide in a wall up to 10' thick. The door lasts for 1 round, and allows travel in both directions. The door does not actual create a hole, but rather a two-way short-ranged gate that bypasses the material between the two points. 750 gp, 500 xp.
Why so expensive in DF, and cheap in D&D? In both, I put it on par with Flight/Flying - potions which otherwise bypass obstacles that are at the heart of dungeon delving. DF puts a high premium cost on things that do so; D&D cares a lot less about this. So the pricing is in line with how both games value such things.
Why not just make it a liquid version of Passwall? Go right ahead, but I like the effects of Create Door a lot so I went that route.
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy
Door In A Jar (Grenade). This jar of greenish slime is thrown against a wall. It creates a door, 7' tall by 3' wide in a wall up to 4 yards thick. The door lasts for 10 seconds, and allows travels in both directions. It is otherwise identical to the Create Door spell. $3,000, 1 lb.
Generically D&D compatible
Door in a Jar. This jar of greenish slime is thrown against a wall. It creates a door, 7' tall by 3' wide in a wall up to 10' thick. The door lasts for 1 round, and allows travel in both directions. The door does not actual create a hole, but rather a two-way short-ranged gate that bypasses the material between the two points. 750 gp, 500 xp.
Why so expensive in DF, and cheap in D&D? In both, I put it on par with Flight/Flying - potions which otherwise bypass obstacles that are at the heart of dungeon delving. DF puts a high premium cost on things that do so; D&D cares a lot less about this. So the pricing is in line with how both games value such things.
Why not just make it a liquid version of Passwall? Go right ahead, but I like the effects of Create Door a lot so I went that route.
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