Kromm already leaked it, but it's not like it would be tough to guess.
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
SJG GURPS 2021 PDF Challenge
So . . . guess which book I wrote?
Kromm already leaked it, but it's not like it would be tough to guess.
Kromm already leaked it, but it's not like it would be tough to guess.
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
Weapon Master: What to do in DF?
Based on my other posts on Weapon Master, here is what I think makes the most sense in Dungeon Fantasy for me. It's in the game and here to stay. Haves and have-nots exist, and the have-nots struggle to stay relevant with the haves in combat and the monsters too able to fight the haves. So what to do?
I think I need to build around it because:
- DF really embeds Weapon Master as a core trait;
- WM creates a strong have/have not split;
- and WM and its effects are core to the high-power experience;
Therefore I think the optimal solution is to expand access to Weapon Master.
Right now, the only combatant template that lacks any kind of Weapon Master is the Holy Warrior as far as I can tell. I think a simple fix is to allow the Holy Warrior to buy Weapon Master in some fashion:
- Limited to a specific class of weapons
- Limited to the "All Weapons" version
- Unlimited
I don't think anything is really harmed by allowing them access to any level they want.
There is a slight temptation to make it a Holy Ability, and thus dependent on their holy disadvantage - violate it, lose it. But in practice, I've found it's not that common to violate your holy disadvantage. So that would just be a discount for a power to be always on, and have weird effects like losing it in No Sanctity. It's not a bad idea, I'm just not sure it's worth it.
Moreso the idea of limiting to the "only against Undead or Demons." Ugh. Now I'll get the annoyance of this nonstop: "Is this undead or a demon? If so, my Rapid Strike is only -3/-3 not -6/-6 so I want to make my Deceptive Attack -2 not -1. If not -1 is fine, I'm just checking." Plus what if you don't know it's undead? Or you're attacking a vague shape in the darkness and it turns out not to be a cultist but a demon, instead, do I tell you that by modifying your roll? Ugh. Nevermind that.
Another option is to say they have Weapon Master (Holy, -10%, only weapons with the Holy modifier, -20%). They'd be standard warriors without it, but for 14 to 32 points, they could have the advantage usable with any Holy weapons - see DFRPG Magic Items for a description. This is pricy, but you get guys who are hell on wheels with a sword that fits their idiom (if that's the best word for it here), but not otherwise.
Giving Holy Warriors some kind of access to WM might be the only way to take an existing campaign and level the playing field at least on the side of the PCs. The non-fighters will have to just cope - bards, thieves, clerics, druids, wizards, and the like should recognize that fighting isn't their thing and avoid it when possible.
I'm not certain what approach I'll use, but allowing Holy Warriors access to WM seems like the only way to keep them relevant when everyone else has access to multiple attacks, multiple defenses, and skill-based-per-die damage modifiers and they do not. You can easily copy this approach on other templates if they, too, use weaponry but lack the firepower to keep up with everyone else.
I think I need to build around it because:
- DF really embeds Weapon Master as a core trait;
- WM creates a strong have/have not split;
- and WM and its effects are core to the high-power experience;
Therefore I think the optimal solution is to expand access to Weapon Master.
Right now, the only combatant template that lacks any kind of Weapon Master is the Holy Warrior as far as I can tell. I think a simple fix is to allow the Holy Warrior to buy Weapon Master in some fashion:
- Limited to a specific class of weapons
- Limited to the "All Weapons" version
- Unlimited
I don't think anything is really harmed by allowing them access to any level they want.
There is a slight temptation to make it a Holy Ability, and thus dependent on their holy disadvantage - violate it, lose it. But in practice, I've found it's not that common to violate your holy disadvantage. So that would just be a discount for a power to be always on, and have weird effects like losing it in No Sanctity. It's not a bad idea, I'm just not sure it's worth it.
Moreso the idea of limiting to the "only against Undead or Demons." Ugh. Now I'll get the annoyance of this nonstop: "Is this undead or a demon? If so, my Rapid Strike is only -3/-3 not -6/-6 so I want to make my Deceptive Attack -2 not -1. If not -1 is fine, I'm just checking." Plus what if you don't know it's undead? Or you're attacking a vague shape in the darkness and it turns out not to be a cultist but a demon, instead, do I tell you that by modifying your roll? Ugh. Nevermind that.
Another option is to say they have Weapon Master (Holy, -10%, only weapons with the Holy modifier, -20%). They'd be standard warriors without it, but for 14 to 32 points, they could have the advantage usable with any Holy weapons - see DFRPG Magic Items for a description. This is pricy, but you get guys who are hell on wheels with a sword that fits their idiom (if that's the best word for it here), but not otherwise.
Giving Holy Warriors some kind of access to WM might be the only way to take an existing campaign and level the playing field at least on the side of the PCs. The non-fighters will have to just cope - bards, thieves, clerics, druids, wizards, and the like should recognize that fighting isn't their thing and avoid it when possible.
I'm not certain what approach I'll use, but allowing Holy Warriors access to WM seems like the only way to keep them relevant when everyone else has access to multiple attacks, multiple defenses, and skill-based-per-die damage modifiers and they do not. You can easily copy this approach on other templates if they, too, use weaponry but lack the firepower to keep up with everyone else.
Monday, June 28, 2021
Weapon Master: Monster consequences
Here is part II of my mini-series of thoughts on Weapon Master and its consequences. You may or may not like these consequences. I'm really just observing what I see and what I think the results of the advantage being freely available is on a game.
How do you make sure monsters are a threat to Weapon Master PCs?
The simple answer is, "Just use more monsters!" or "Just use stronger monsters!"
That's fine, and it works to a degree.
The monsters must be designed with dealing with WM in mind or they're going to provide a less-than-expected challenge. Rewards are less appropriate to the challenge if they're easier because you're getting more, higher-damage attacks against them and fending off more attacks with less penalties. Or monsters are designed with an eye to WM foes, and are thus more dangerous themselves. That balances them better against the WMs.
But it further leaves the have-not PCs in a hole. They're facing increased numbers of foes, yet effectively attack less often than their WM-having buddies and defend against multiple attacks less well than they do, as well. Or they they're facing foes designed to absorb multiple defense penalties (or get around them by having a high Dodge), the DR to absorb an additional +4 to +6 to even +8 damage expected from a WM PC, or the ability to saturate defenses to deal with the WM's ability to defend multiple times more effectively.
Essentially those are decisions I make when I'm designing a "boss" monster for DF. The assumption is the monster must have the DR to deal with very-high-damage threats, because the "low" damage PCs can inflict 10-15 points of raw damage. The monster must be able to deal with 2-4 attacks per PC per second; out of each block of attacks one is likely to be a high-skill Feint. The monster must be able to deal with high defenses without needing to saturate them to do so, because defenses will, at worst, cascade down at a -2 and likely will do so from two pools (dual weapon or weapon and shield) or be at -1 (fencing weapon or two-handed sword) or both. All of this is without Great Haste more than doubling the threat of the PCs, as the first turn will be an All-Out Attack.
They may or may not need enough HP and damage-reducing advantages to survive all of this anyway; Regeneration is nice but unless it's at least 10 HP/second it'll get smothered. A worthy foe merely needs to be able to this against one PC; a boss against multiple. If they can't hold up more than 1-3 seconds of this, they're really just fodder by another name. And the ones who can hang with WMs for a while like this can generally ignore non-WMs unless they get a lucky break or jump in between WM character turns.
Much of this exists without WM, but it's all to a higher degree just with the addition of a 20-to-45 point advantage on a PC. WM effectively attacks as an attack-and-damage multiplier on a PC and thus makes them more of a threat to that worthy or boss foe, and may reduce worthy to fodder and bosses to worthy. If that boss was meant to take on 5-6 PCs and now faces 5-6 but can only hang with 1-2 WMs, the reward it provides just won't make much sense. Any loot will probably be turned into more power, contributing to the lopsided nature of the encounter later.
There are consequences to decisions elsewhere in the game system. This is one of them. Much like how magic system choice dramatically affects the threat of monsters, so does WM. Magic might make ranged foes helpless (Missile Shield) or provide the only way to fight them (ghosts, say), but either way it's a change. I'm arguing here that Weapon Master is such a change, too, since it makes a category of PCs (the haves) able to more effectively deal with monsters as foes than a non-WM would be.
So monsters are affected by WM, too, and by monsters I mean the GM's adventure design. It's harder to appropriately challenge a WM PC without making non-WM PCs basically irrelevant.
How do you make sure monsters are a threat to Weapon Master PCs?
The simple answer is, "Just use more monsters!" or "Just use stronger monsters!"
That's fine, and it works to a degree.
The monsters must be designed with dealing with WM in mind or they're going to provide a less-than-expected challenge. Rewards are less appropriate to the challenge if they're easier because you're getting more, higher-damage attacks against them and fending off more attacks with less penalties. Or monsters are designed with an eye to WM foes, and are thus more dangerous themselves. That balances them better against the WMs.
But it further leaves the have-not PCs in a hole. They're facing increased numbers of foes, yet effectively attack less often than their WM-having buddies and defend against multiple attacks less well than they do, as well. Or they they're facing foes designed to absorb multiple defense penalties (or get around them by having a high Dodge), the DR to absorb an additional +4 to +6 to even +8 damage expected from a WM PC, or the ability to saturate defenses to deal with the WM's ability to defend multiple times more effectively.
Essentially those are decisions I make when I'm designing a "boss" monster for DF. The assumption is the monster must have the DR to deal with very-high-damage threats, because the "low" damage PCs can inflict 10-15 points of raw damage. The monster must be able to deal with 2-4 attacks per PC per second; out of each block of attacks one is likely to be a high-skill Feint. The monster must be able to deal with high defenses without needing to saturate them to do so, because defenses will, at worst, cascade down at a -2 and likely will do so from two pools (dual weapon or weapon and shield) or be at -1 (fencing weapon or two-handed sword) or both. All of this is without Great Haste more than doubling the threat of the PCs, as the first turn will be an All-Out Attack.
They may or may not need enough HP and damage-reducing advantages to survive all of this anyway; Regeneration is nice but unless it's at least 10 HP/second it'll get smothered. A worthy foe merely needs to be able to this against one PC; a boss against multiple. If they can't hold up more than 1-3 seconds of this, they're really just fodder by another name. And the ones who can hang with WMs for a while like this can generally ignore non-WMs unless they get a lucky break or jump in between WM character turns.
Much of this exists without WM, but it's all to a higher degree just with the addition of a 20-to-45 point advantage on a PC. WM effectively attacks as an attack-and-damage multiplier on a PC and thus makes them more of a threat to that worthy or boss foe, and may reduce worthy to fodder and bosses to worthy. If that boss was meant to take on 5-6 PCs and now faces 5-6 but can only hang with 1-2 WMs, the reward it provides just won't make much sense. Any loot will probably be turned into more power, contributing to the lopsided nature of the encounter later.
There are consequences to decisions elsewhere in the game system. This is one of them. Much like how magic system choice dramatically affects the threat of monsters, so does WM. Magic might make ranged foes helpless (Missile Shield) or provide the only way to fight them (ghosts, say), but either way it's a change. I'm arguing here that Weapon Master is such a change, too, since it makes a category of PCs (the haves) able to more effectively deal with monsters as foes than a non-WM would be.
So monsters are affected by WM, too, and by monsters I mean the GM's adventure design. It's harder to appropriately challenge a WM PC without making non-WM PCs basically irrelevant.
Sunday, June 27, 2021
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Session 155, Cold Fens 13 - Scouting Sakatha's Island
I spent the week prepping AD&D, so we could play A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade. But it needs nine characters to be run, and we ended up with four players. One player was very enthusiastic to play AD&D. Another, less so, because running multiple characters isn't really his thing. After some discussion, it was clear that the way to go was to play the Cold Fens, and do a scouting/exploring mission. Exploration of a lot of new areas (10+ hexes) would be easily done and net 2 xp even if no loot was found . . . and the PCs really want to know the current status of Sakatha's Tomb.
So we last-minute switched to that. I literally had both games queued up to play and then just started running DF.
Game Date: 6/27/2021 - 7/3/2021
Characters:
Galen Longtread, human scout (498 points)
Heyden, human knight (308 points)
Ulf Sigurdson, human cleric (343 points)
Wyatt Sorrel, human swashbuckler (354 points)
The group gathered at Ulf Hollow, and set out in a boat after gathering up all of the paut, healing potions, and rations they could.
They worked their way south from Ulf Hollow and took the first SE passage they could. That ended up a mistake - it slowly turned NE and then N. They reversed course.
They explored further south and then southwest and then southeast. This took a couple days of travel, mostly using Sanctuary at night after a pair of leaping leeches sucked 4 HP of blood out of Wyatt's face before he could smash them bare-handed. Otherwise they mostly dealt with insects ranging from nuisances (loss of some FP) to lethal (loss of some HP) and once getting stalked by (probably) some shamblethorns.*
Eventually they reached a point where, come evening, wisps of strange fog came questing in from the SE. So did bats. Lots of bats. Bats that sure seemed to Wyatt (who rolled a 3 on his Per check) were looking for something. So they ducked into a Sanctuary (and I ruled they couldn't fit the boat in) and waited it out until morning. Ulf stayed awake with Vigil.
They sent Galen exploring overland for most of the next day, and found little except a fog-shrouded island to the SE. They camped not far from where they started after waiting out the day in the rain while Galen explored solo, and slept in a Sanctuary again.
The next day they landed on Sakatha's Island, and found the "dock" and the steps. They tied off their boat their and climbed up. Relying on the journal entries that described the place before, they sprinted past the watery murder nymphs. Ulf blasted one for 18 damage with a Sunbolt while on the run, but they otherwise avoided them. They did the coin-on-a-string trick, which Wyatt had read about, and went down through the trapdoor.
Once below, they systematically searched the whole place. Their map wasn't accurate, but even so, they covered the place and searched all they could. They found many signs of fierce battles, but not a corpse, coin, stitch of valuable clothing, or anything worth taking. Wyatt wanted to test doors to see if they could just be opened but Heyden kicked or shouldered or yanked them all open with Forced Entry without waiting. In the end, even with See Secrets on for part of the exploration and Galen's expert eye, they found nothing new. Just "secret" doors that wouldn't open without some trick (unholy water, according to the journals), and that was that. Ulf tried to Dismissive Wave away the evil temple and failed utterly.
That done, they made their way back a new way and then to home. The only threat was a pony-sized frog that swam at them . . . Galen put three arrows at it, hit with two, it dodged one, and he did minimum damage (8 damage) to the skull . . . enough to knock it cold. They poled on home and left it behind.
Notes:
- The PCs made it home just in time for July 4th, a day when people celebrate something with fireworks and fire spells for some reason.
- One hex had a random encounter with lethal insects and then had the same lethal insects encounter, totally at random, the next day. So I decided that's near a bunch of wasp's nests. So I labeled that hex. Avoid it, there are more wasps than you'd like there.
- Where were the bodies? Why were the doors closed? Good questions. Some of the bodies had become zombies or skeletons under Gerry's command. Others are just gone. The place was pretty thoroughly picked over by the PCs several times.
- MVP was Hayden for finding a Simpsons meme for every critical moment to paste into the Roll20 chatbox. So XP was 2 each for exploration, 0 xp for loot, +1 for Heyden. The lowest point PC out of this group is 308 points with 52 points saved. We'll see when "we're too weak to do that" runs down a bit with the lowest point guy soon to be 100 points above a starting PC.
- 2 xp from now, Galen will need $200,000 for 4 xp for loot, and $40,000 for 2 xp. So he'll likely insist on exploration (1 for a new place, 2 for 10+) all of the time. That's a positive to me. The old guard really will only benefit from a huge pile of loot or finding some new and interesting thing. That's why the 500+ point lord sends you lower-point guys out on quests. He can still get killed - the risk isn't any lower than before - but the reward is usually nothing at all. So YOU go do it, you new guys.
- Lots of fun today, even if the summary doesn't make it seem like it.
* Quote of the day, "Do they shamble? Like mounds would?" - Galen
So we last-minute switched to that. I literally had both games queued up to play and then just started running DF.
Game Date: 6/27/2021 - 7/3/2021
Characters:
Galen Longtread, human scout (498 points)
Heyden, human knight (308 points)
Ulf Sigurdson, human cleric (343 points)
Wyatt Sorrel, human swashbuckler (354 points)
The group gathered at Ulf Hollow, and set out in a boat after gathering up all of the paut, healing potions, and rations they could.
They worked their way south from Ulf Hollow and took the first SE passage they could. That ended up a mistake - it slowly turned NE and then N. They reversed course.
They explored further south and then southwest and then southeast. This took a couple days of travel, mostly using Sanctuary at night after a pair of leaping leeches sucked 4 HP of blood out of Wyatt's face before he could smash them bare-handed. Otherwise they mostly dealt with insects ranging from nuisances (loss of some FP) to lethal (loss of some HP) and once getting stalked by (probably) some shamblethorns.*
Eventually they reached a point where, come evening, wisps of strange fog came questing in from the SE. So did bats. Lots of bats. Bats that sure seemed to Wyatt (who rolled a 3 on his Per check) were looking for something. So they ducked into a Sanctuary (and I ruled they couldn't fit the boat in) and waited it out until morning. Ulf stayed awake with Vigil.
They sent Galen exploring overland for most of the next day, and found little except a fog-shrouded island to the SE. They camped not far from where they started after waiting out the day in the rain while Galen explored solo, and slept in a Sanctuary again.
The next day they landed on Sakatha's Island, and found the "dock" and the steps. They tied off their boat their and climbed up. Relying on the journal entries that described the place before, they sprinted past the watery murder nymphs. Ulf blasted one for 18 damage with a Sunbolt while on the run, but they otherwise avoided them. They did the coin-on-a-string trick, which Wyatt had read about, and went down through the trapdoor.
Once below, they systematically searched the whole place. Their map wasn't accurate, but even so, they covered the place and searched all they could. They found many signs of fierce battles, but not a corpse, coin, stitch of valuable clothing, or anything worth taking. Wyatt wanted to test doors to see if they could just be opened but Heyden kicked or shouldered or yanked them all open with Forced Entry without waiting. In the end, even with See Secrets on for part of the exploration and Galen's expert eye, they found nothing new. Just "secret" doors that wouldn't open without some trick (unholy water, according to the journals), and that was that. Ulf tried to Dismissive Wave away the evil temple and failed utterly.
That done, they made their way back a new way and then to home. The only threat was a pony-sized frog that swam at them . . . Galen put three arrows at it, hit with two, it dodged one, and he did minimum damage (8 damage) to the skull . . . enough to knock it cold. They poled on home and left it behind.
Notes:
- The PCs made it home just in time for July 4th, a day when people celebrate something with fireworks and fire spells for some reason.
- One hex had a random encounter with lethal insects and then had the same lethal insects encounter, totally at random, the next day. So I decided that's near a bunch of wasp's nests. So I labeled that hex. Avoid it, there are more wasps than you'd like there.
- Where were the bodies? Why were the doors closed? Good questions. Some of the bodies had become zombies or skeletons under Gerry's command. Others are just gone. The place was pretty thoroughly picked over by the PCs several times.
- MVP was Hayden for finding a Simpsons meme for every critical moment to paste into the Roll20 chatbox. So XP was 2 each for exploration, 0 xp for loot, +1 for Heyden. The lowest point PC out of this group is 308 points with 52 points saved. We'll see when "we're too weak to do that" runs down a bit with the lowest point guy soon to be 100 points above a starting PC.
- 2 xp from now, Galen will need $200,000 for 4 xp for loot, and $40,000 for 2 xp. So he'll likely insist on exploration (1 for a new place, 2 for 10+) all of the time. That's a positive to me. The old guard really will only benefit from a huge pile of loot or finding some new and interesting thing. That's why the 500+ point lord sends you lower-point guys out on quests. He can still get killed - the risk isn't any lower than before - but the reward is usually nothing at all. So YOU go do it, you new guys.
- Lots of fun today, even if the summary doesn't make it seem like it.
* Quote of the day, "Do they shamble? Like mounds would?" - Galen
Emergency Cold Fens
Thanks to illness & injuries & work and such, we have only four players today instead of the seven or eight we were expecting.
So the players decided it was better to play the Cold Fens and do some scouting. Overriding Galen's (sarcastic) suggestion to go "dirt the Los Bros Humongous."
Exploring in a swamp, hurrah! I'll just shelve all of my AD&D books for a couple weeks from now.
So the players decided it was better to play the Cold Fens and do some scouting. Overriding Galen's (sarcastic) suggestion to go "dirt the Los Bros Humongous."
Exploring in a swamp, hurrah! I'll just shelve all of my AD&D books for a couple weeks from now.
Saturday, June 26, 2021
Tomorrow: A2
We're playing A2 tomorrow.
A week or so back, I put out the characters to see who wants to run who:
Claimed so far:
Blodgett
Elwitta
Karraway
Remaining:
Freda
Dread Delgath
Phanstern
Kayan Telva
Eljayess
"Ogre"
"Ogre" is likely going to Crogar's player, as he won't use any special abilities or spells if his character has one, so it's not a good choice given him a fighter/cleric or fighter/magic-user or ranger.
I think we'll have six additional players, so we're ready for a full house of AD&D fun. But I guess we won't see people read over their spells ahead of time, check their magic items out, etc. Oh well, I tried!
Still looking forward to it.
A week or so back, I put out the characters to see who wants to run who:
Claimed so far:
Blodgett
Elwitta
Karraway
Remaining:
Freda
Dread Delgath
Phanstern
Kayan Telva
Eljayess
"Ogre"
"Ogre" is likely going to Crogar's player, as he won't use any special abilities or spells if his character has one, so it's not a good choice given him a fighter/cleric or fighter/magic-user or ranger.
I think we'll have six additional players, so we're ready for a full house of AD&D fun. But I guess we won't see people read over their spells ahead of time, check their magic items out, etc. Oh well, I tried!
Still looking forward to it.
Friday, June 25, 2021
Links & Thoughts for 6/25/21
A few quick links and thoughts today.
- I have some more to write on Weapon Master issues, but that'll need to wait until tomorrow or Sunday. There are some interesting ideas in the comments on that post. My next post will deal with other fallout
- Okay, this is just neat. I'm surprised it took so long for someone to calculate, in retrospect. This would let you cost a self-control roll that isn't just 6, 9, 12, 15. I don't think I'd use this, but I like knowing I could and I'd be fitting into the mathematical curve.
DFRPG Self Control Rolls
- I don't particularly like aboleth. I do like this writeup and the way it weaves a lot of possibilities and rumors - often contradictory - into one narrative.
On the Ecology of the Aboleth
- Here is a nice GURPS 101 post on ending combat.
GURPS 101: How to end a fight
Sadly, so, so, so many of these endings require one thing - willingness on the part of the victor to not murder the defeated. If they're going to do that - either due to capital-B Bloodlust or just RPG-player-think of "kill everything so it can't fight you again" - then the fight cannot end except in death unless the defeated are faster than the victors. And are able to keep fleeing farther and longer than the PCs can follow. Most PCs in my experience pursue like the Mongols after a defeated foe. They won't generally surrender either, because what if the enemies act like they do? Better to fight to the death, just in case.
- I have some more to write on Weapon Master issues, but that'll need to wait until tomorrow or Sunday. There are some interesting ideas in the comments on that post. My next post will deal with other fallout
- Okay, this is just neat. I'm surprised it took so long for someone to calculate, in retrospect. This would let you cost a self-control roll that isn't just 6, 9, 12, 15. I don't think I'd use this, but I like knowing I could and I'd be fitting into the mathematical curve.
DFRPG Self Control Rolls
- I don't particularly like aboleth. I do like this writeup and the way it weaves a lot of possibilities and rumors - often contradictory - into one narrative.
On the Ecology of the Aboleth
- Here is a nice GURPS 101 post on ending combat.
GURPS 101: How to end a fight
Sadly, so, so, so many of these endings require one thing - willingness on the part of the victor to not murder the defeated. If they're going to do that - either due to capital-B Bloodlust or just RPG-player-think of "kill everything so it can't fight you again" - then the fight cannot end except in death unless the defeated are faster than the victors. And are able to keep fleeing farther and longer than the PCs can follow. Most PCs in my experience pursue like the Mongols after a defeated foe. They won't generally surrender either, because what if the enemies act like they do? Better to fight to the death, just in case.
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