Second Play Test Session of Chanbara

 Last Saturday night, I ran a somewhat short session of Chanbara for Michael, Dean and Alexei. I don't want to get into the details of play exactly (thinking of publishing this series of adventures in the future, so more on the actual adventure then). So I'll mostly be posting here about the system and how it fared during the game.

First of all, we spent most of the session RPing the aftermath of the previous session, and coming up with a plan to proceed. They set out and for the most part, again it was all RP. So like the first session, the rules were more invisible for most of the night. Then what I thought would be a short encounter on the way to their destination turned into a fairly major and involved melee.

The good thing is I got to try out my "tactical attacks" mechanic, and especially the grab/pin rules. And wouldn't you know it, they're clunky and not really satisfying. They're better (IMO) than 3E/d20 or 1E AD&D's grappling rules in that they are much simpler. The problem is, there's no way as stated for the grapple to end. There's no inescapable pin. So that needs to be changed.

One of the monsters they encountered was a rokurokubi, which because it's a monster, it has a special "grab" attack. The accompanying bakemono do not, so they had to settle for regular tactical attacks to grab and then pin the PCs. And the PCs' rolls were good enough for the most part to keep breaking the grabs or pins, but then the monsters, who outnumbered the PCs, would do it again. So it took a while.

Part of me is thinking, "Well, isn't that sort of like actual scrappy fight wrestling?" Another part of me is thinking, "Well, that wasn't as fun as it could have been for me or for the players." And that second voice is the one I know I need to listen to.

So, I need to rethink the Tactical Attacks rules a bit, and especially the wrestling rules.

I took a hint from Pathfinder for this. In PF, if you're not aware of the system, they have a special attack bonus and defense score for special maneuvers like trips, disarms, grapples, bull rushes, and the like. In Chanbara, I have a special defense score, Tactical Defense (TD), but the attack roll is just a normal attack like any other.

Usually, a tactical attack that hits works automatically. No saving throw, no nothing. So if someone tries to disarm you, and their normal attack roll is higher than your TD, you're disarmed.

In the case of the Grab, if a character is grabbed, they can make their own tactical attack to escape (their action for the round). If a character has been grabbed and the opponent succeeds on a second tactical attack, the character is pinned. But again, a tactical attack at a -4 penalty can allow them to break out of the pin. And they can keep retrying every round.

Either I need to put a cap on the number of retries, allow a third successful tactical attack to result in an "iron pin" that can't be escaped from, or have a pinned PC make a saving throw (Metal or Water would likely be appropriate). If they fail the save, they are in an iron pin and can't escape. If they succeed, they can make tactical attacks each round at the penalty to try to escape.

Alexei also mentioned something important in our end of session comments. A grabbed/pinned PC should automatically lose initiative. In that way, their attempt to break the hold is always at the end of the round. And if they break the hold and gain initiative the next round (rolling group initiative every round), they then have a chance to act - flee, strike with a weapon or spell, grab the grabber instead, etc. That's easy to implement.

I hope to run the next session in 3 weeks or so, and we'll hopefully (if they keep on doing what they're doing, and things go more or less according to my plans) finally get to do a bit of dungeon delving and see how things work in a dungeon scenario.

Oh, and one more thing worth noting - Alexei's rolls weren't nearly as good as last session, so his combat dice didn't seem overpowered at all. I'll still be evaluating them, though, especially if we get to the dungeon next time.

Finally, the RPOL.net game is about to get up and running. The character creation phase is just about complete, and I've got plenty of good hooks I can use to get them up and exploring Ghost Castle Hasegawa!

Reworking the Kensei

Sorry for the blog going mostly dark for the past month or more.  Hopefully I'll be generating more content over my summer grad school vacation.  In that vein, I had a bit of inspiration on how to do my Kensei (Weapon Master) class for Chanbara yesterday, and just finished typing it up as we speak.

Here's a sneak peak of the class write-up at the moment.  This is probably not final, I'll tweak a few things, and likely embellish the description a bit more before I publish.  But I think these are the mechanics I want for the class. Before I had the class limited to certain special abilities (combat maneuvers) depending on the weapon chosen.  Now, I assume players will likely take those maneuvers anyway, and give them a few small oomphs, in the allocatable Form bonus and "critical hit" abilities.

Mifune Toshiro as Miyamoto Musashi

Kensei (Weapon Master)

Few have the patience or drive to dedicate their life to perfecting the art of combat with a single weapon, but the kensei (also known as kengou) are those rare few. They may be soldiers or duelists, and legends are often written about them due to their amazing reputations. Kensei must select a single weapon (unarmed strikes and psychic duels are possible choices) to master, and some of their special abilities are determined by this choice.

HD: d10

Skill Dice: Combat

Primary: any except Con

Secondary: Con, any one other

Proficiency: any 4 weapons, no armor

Special Abilities: Maneuvers

Level	XP	BAB	Form	Special Abilities
1	0	+1	+1	2
2	2000	+2	+1	2	1
3	4000	+2	+1	3	1
4	8000	+3	+2	3	2	1
5	16,000	+3/+3	+2	4	2	1
6	32,000	+4/+4	+2	4	3	2	1
7	64,000	+4/+4	+3	5	3	2	1	1
8	125,000	+5/+5	+3	5	4	3	2	1
9	250,000	+5/+5	+3	6	4	4	2	2
10	500,000	+5/+5/+5	+4	6	5	4	3	2

Kensei select one weapon to specialize in, gaining a +1 bonus to hit and +1 bonus to damage with that weapon. At 4^th(natural 20), 7^th(19-20) and 10^th level (18-20), kensei gain special benefits on an attack roll depending on the type of weapon used as shown below.

• Axe: the wound bleeds out for 1d4 damage each round for one round per level of the kensei or until magically healed.
• Bludgeon: the opponent must Save vs. Fire (at -2 at 7^th, -4 at 10^th) or be knocked out for 1d4 minutes.
• Bow/Firearm: the shot pierces the opponent, doing +1d4 damage, and may strike another target behind the opponent if there are any, roll normally to hit.
• Ninja/Martial Arts Weapon: the kensei automatically adds a tactical attack effect to the hit.
• Open Hand: the kensei can make two more attacks at the highest BAB bonus this round.
• Psychic: the kensei gains Spirit Points equal to the amount of psychic damage inflicted, with any over the maximum being temporary until the end of the duel.
• Spear/Staff/Polearm: the opponent struck loses their next attack and is forced back 5' (10' at 7^th, 15' at 10th).
• Sword/Dagger: damage is doubled after all bonuses are added

Weapon Form: Kensei can apply this bonus as they wish to one of the following areas each round: initiative, standard attack, tactical attack, psychic attack, weapon damage, psychic damage, AC, TD or PD, but the Form bonus does not stack with combat skill dice.

Soul in the Weapon: a kensei of 5^th level or higher can damage creatures only harmed by magical weapons when using their special weapon.

Plugging Away at Chanbara

Today I made some small progress on Chanbara.  I'm currently reorganizing and expanding the various special abilities - the Maneuvers, Tricks and Secrets. 

The biggest change I'm making is to make some sub-types.  For example, Maneuvers will have some subtypes dedicated to weapon groups.  Tricks will have tags for social interaction, infiltration, espionage, etc.  Secrets will be divvied up between Ki (Chi), In (Yin), Yo (Yang), and the 5 Taoist Elements.  There will also be some catch-all general categories for things that don't fit anywhere else.

This means a lot more work for me, and for new players it will also be a bit more to look over to create a character.  But the advantage is that certain classes will be able to have access only to the subsets of abilities that fit their class.

The Kensei, or Weapon Master, will choose a weapon to specialize in, and then must take the abilities associated with that weapon first, and can take general combat Maneuvers with additional slots as they level up.  The Soryo (priest) class will have access to all Secrets, being a spell-casting class, but will also have the social interaction Tricks available (but not the ninja infiltration/escape stuff) since dealing with people (and intelligent monsters) is something priests are trained in.

More general classes, like the Bushi (Warrior) will simply have blanket access to all Maneuvers, and no Tricks or Secrets.  They can ignore the existence of sub-types and take whatever maneuvers they wish whenever they qualify for them.  Customization is their shtick. 

Players will have blueprints for certain archetypes, however, with the subtypes listed.  A fire-based Yamabushi might take all the Yo and Fire Secrets they can, along with the appropriate spells. 

Small Oversight

I'm getting my Chanbara rules ready to go for the playtesting, and I noticed a small oversight.  I left out rules for Psychic Duels.  You know, how a pair of characters will stare each other down, size each other up, and then they don't even have to fight, they know who will win.  Common in Wuxia, Chanbara and Western films.

Anyway, I added it in.  It's only a paragraph, and it uses the three mental stats, level, and standard d20 hit rolls and 1d6 damage rolls to pull off.  I'm hoping someone tries to stare someone down during the play tests so I can try them out.  On paper, it looks good.

Classes in Chanbara

It's a gameless Saturday night here in Busan, so I created this little graphic to show the class relationships in Chanbara.

Here you see the four main class groups, all twelve classes, and the relationships between the special ability types (maneuvers, tricks, or spells).  The last one may not be so obvious. 

The points of the triangle have classes with only one special ability type: Samurai - Combat Maneuvers; Ninja - Tricks; Yamabushi - Spells.  Call these the base classes, if you will. 

The secondary human classes have primarily the same special abilities as their group's base class, but also some of the special abilities of the group along the lines of the outer triangle. 

So, for example, Gorotsuki are in the Shinobi group but along the line with Maho-tsukai, so they have mostly Tricks but some Spells.  Onmyoji are in the Maho-tsukai group but along the same line, so they have mostly Spells but some Tricks.  The three Yokai classes have an even split of the two ability types that flank their boxes.  So Kitsune have an even split of Tricks and Spells.

If you were to write it out in linear form for each side of the triangle, it would look something like this:
Ninja - all Tricks
Gorotsuki - 2/3 Tricks, 1/3 Spells
Kitsune - 1/2 Tricks, 1/2 Spells
Onmyoji - 1/3 Tricks, 2/3 Spells
Yamabushi all Spells

Repeat for the Samurai to Ninja line, and Samurai to Yamabushi line.

o-bake, yokai, kaibutsu, yurei

Working on the monster chapter of Chanbara right now, and the treasure table.  At the moment, I've taken the "human" monsters out to save space, but since my new page count goal is 96 pages, I think I might throw them back in.  That way, there will be "official" (I really detest the plea to "official"ness in RPGs) stats for yakuza, yojinbo and oniwabanshu bodyguards, ashigaru, daimyo, peasant/artisan/merchant/eta, wandering duelist ronin, and the like.

I need to work up hirelings/specialists/mercenaries pay charts like in the Expert Set now that I think about it. 

For the treasure table, I went a bit less abstract than D&D's alphabetical system.  Sorta similar to 3E/4E (please don't shudder yet), I've divided treasure categories by hit dice.  However, I've subdivided each hit die band into four: incidental, low, average, high.  And monsters don't have a listed treasure subdivision in their stat block.  When placing monsters, GMs will need to decide monster by monster if they should have treasure or not, and how much.

In other news, I reduced the number of special abilities all classes receive.  Before, every class had three or five unique (or nearly so) class abilities, plus access to Maneuvers, Tricks and/or Spells.  By 10th level, human classes had 21 Maneuvers/Tricks/Spells plus 5 class abilities, and Yokai had 22 Maneuvers/Tricks/Spells and 3 class abilities.

Class abilities are unchanged, but total Maneuvers/Tricks/Spells has been reduced to 15/16 at 10th level.  Revised Flying Swordsmen will follow suit.

Poison in Chanbara

I just spent the past hour or so trying to find a blog post from a little while back - could have been as far back as last November, or maybe only January.  Don't remember exactly.  Anyway, the blogger had posted about the actual effects of poison, and how they're actually a lot more fun than simply keeling over dead.  Projectile vomiting, uncontrolled diarrhea, swelling, hallucinations, all that sort of stuff.

And I can't find it.

Anyway, thanks to my very light Thursday schedule, I've just about got the Chanbara combat chapter done.  All that's left is the poisons.

Inspired by this renegade blog post (and if you're reading this or you also remember that post and happen to remember who blogged about it please let me know!  I'd love to give credit where credit is due, and also stick that post up on the Links to Wisdom wiki so I and others can find it again), Chanbara [and Flying Swordsmen when I get around to revising it] will have three different types of poisons with effects as follows:

Intoxicants: affect the mind, and could cause any of the following - sleep, drowsiness, confusion, impaired judgement, hallucinations, slowed reactions, severe headache, death

Contaminants: nausea, pain, vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, blindness, choking/coughing, death

Destructive: hit point damage, greater hit point damage, damage plus intoxicant symptom, damage plus contaminant syndrome, convulsions, rash/swelling, death

I'll have charts with the various symptoms, and different die roll spreads for differing strengths of poison: weak 2d4 (never results in death), moderate 2d6 (slight chance for instant death), strong 2d8 (higher chance for instant death).  Of course, the weak destructive poisons could easily result in death through hit point damage even if there's no chance to roll for instant death on that chart.

Once I get all this sorted, then I just need to come up with prices for the different types...

Samurai vs. Ninja, Round 2!

Spent almost all of my break time at work today writing up the skill dice section of rules for my Chanbara expansion for Flying Swordsmen.  I also did write-ups for the four Bushi (warrior) classes and the Ninja, although I think I'll need to slightly expand the descriptions of their class special abilities.  I may also need to slightly expand the Skill Dice section, although it's likely that anyone who would download it is already a gamer so that may be unnecessary.  We'll see.

Anyway, one thing I did make sure to add was a few optional ways to run each class.  The "Samurai" class need not be a Bushido-following retainer of a feudal lord, but could be a member of the noble class trained for war, an up-and-coming ashigaru (peasant footman), or a warrior-monk without any mystical abilities (Sohei covers warrior-monks with magic in addition to combat skills).

Also, important, is that Samurai who become ronin, and Ronin who swear fealty to a new lord, DON'T change their class, lose abilities, or suffer any penalties.  It's all role-play.  Someone could even play their Samurai character as a ronin from the start, and vice-versa a Ronin class PC could be a clan or house samurai who just has a more tricksy fighting style.

Possibly confusing, but I prefer encouraging characters to re-fluff the mechanics, and also prefer not limiting events from happening because it might mechanically hinder a player's fun (like a Paladin losing his powers for ending up in a no-win situation). 

Disclaimer:  the game will not be written with "samurai vs. ninja" as the default play-style.  It will be more like "I'm Kikuchiyo from Seven Samurai.  You're Sarutobi Sasuke.  Together we fight the cast of Ge-ge-ge no Kitaro."

Miyamoto Musashi, self portrait

Another take on Swashbuckling

I'm sure most people reading this blog are familiar with the super simple rules for combat maneuvers from the Bumblers.

Jeremy reminded me of them the other day when I was praising the Pathfinder Combat Maneuver Bonus/Defense mechanic.

While I like the simplicity and ease of use of Paizo's mechanic, the Bumblers' idea also is really cool and looks to be a worthwhile addition.  The only reason I haven't used it up until now is because I don't use critical hits in my games.

But I did have an idea a while back, formed from their idea and some of the monsters that can swallow you whole.  There's quite a variety of ways in which they swallow.  On a natural 20 only.  On a 19 or 20.  Four or more above the target's AC or a 20.

A simple system like that could be used for PC classes.  Maybe a Magic-User needs a natural 20 to force the maneuver to succeed (but not if they only hit on a 20).  Clerics succeed on a natural 20 regardless.  Thieves on a natural 19 or 20.  Fighters on a natural 19 or 20, or 4 above the target's AC.

As usual, if the attack hits but isn't a 'crit' then the opponent gets to decide if they want to accept the results of the maneuver, or else just take normal damage.

I'll have to think about which I want to use.


Unrelated notes:
Beast of the Week coming soon
I'm done with my Flying Swordsmen edit...I think.  Looks like I'll be releasing it tomorrow after all.

Swashbucklers

One of the innovations in the d20 rules that was made by the Paizo folks was the Combat Maneuver Bonus/Combat Maneuver Defense scores.

Basically they took all the fiddly 3E combat actions (disarm, trip, bull rush, grapple, etc.) and turned them into this formula:

CMB = BAB + Str + any special bonuses (in other words, a basic attack roll, modified by feats/class abilities).
CMD = 10 + BAB + Str + Dex + any special bonuses.

I'm considering using the basic formula for my Classic D&D games for whenever anyone wants to do something like swinging from chandeliers, flipping their cloak over the opponent's head, throwing sand in their eyes, or the above grapple/disarm/trip type stuff.

I'm already using ascending AC/attack bonus, so this would be easy enough to add in.  For monsters, they just get normal attacks, and 10 + HD for CMD (maybe the creatures that get a Strength bonus/penalty to damage could factor that in as well).

Simple, easy, and hopefully will make for more dynamic combats than simply "roll to hit, roll damage, rinse and repeat."

Not sure what to think of this

I acquired the 4E PHB 2 and PHB 3 on pdf yesterday.  Spent a bit of time looking through them briefly (pain in the but on pdf, but I'm not shucking out cash for physical copies of gaming books I don't really want or need).

Anyway, I was struck by the massive apparent overlap in many of the new classes presented.  Here's a couple more divine casters who fulfill the "Leader" role, just like the Cleric.  Here are some variant wildernessy classes that duplicate the Ranger.  Here are some more arcane strikers similar but different from the Warlock. 

I mean, it's bad enough that the classes' powers are more or less really similar within just the PHB.  I'd have thought they'd have gotten a bit more creative.  I mean, it's really just flavor text anyway, but why not have an arcane caster Defender?  Why not have a martial Controller?  Hasn't 4E broken down the class niche protection enough that it really shouldn't matter?

Anyway, I was mostly doing it because I was curious about how they did the Monk class.  I was thinking about the 4E Power system, and comparing it to what I'm doing with Flying Swordsmen.  Something like that (without all the grids and tactical minis focus on combat) might work for a Wuxia type game. 

No, I'm not considering a revised edition of Flying Swordsmen before I've even got the original completed.  Just pondering.  The way it works now is that every level each character learns a certain amount of maneuvers.  Some are attacks, some are static bonuses and some are situational bonuses to movement, defense or some other aspect of the character.  Once you've got it, it's always on, like 4E At Will powers.  The idea that a character might have certain more powerful abilities only usable once per encounter or once per day could be an interesting addition, but not one I'm planning to make at the moment.

Shinobi Sunday: Kuji

臨兵闘者皆陣列在前

[Rin, Pyo, Tou, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen]

Kuji, or the Nine Syllables, are a part of a lot of ninja pop-culture.  Anime, live action movies, video games, they all tend to use this a lot.  The syllables themselves are usually recited together with hand motions, called the kuji-in, or nine syllables seal, or with alternating horizontal and vertical slashing motions, the kuji-kiri or nine syllables cut.  Ninja use them as a way to prepare themselves for some difficult task, both as a way to focus/calm, and a way to increase power/luck.

Well, luckily, Wikipedia has a good rundown of them.  Also, if you want to try to make the kuji-in yourself and impress your friends with your mad ninja skillz, check this out (read from top right down).

The Dreaded Energy Drain

This post on Dragonsfoot, in a long thread about the subject that was otherwise fairly boring (but long, as it's a subject people love to hate) got me thinking.

Energy Drain no longer drains a level of experience. You keep all your XP, your fighting potential and saves, your spells, your thief skills. You only lose that hit die.

You gain hit dice back only when you level, and for those over name level who have less than 9 hit dice, they continue to gain hit dice until they are at 9, then they get their standard hit points per level.

Makes Energy Drain a bit easier to figure out in the middle of play (no need to recalculate a bunch of stuff, decide which spell slots are lost, figure out how many XP are left, etc.). It also keeps energy drain scary, because every energy drain you take is lowering your total potential hit dice. And you don't want to be level 35 and only have 5 or 6 hit dice, assuming you can get that far...

My Kung Fu is Stronger

Finished up the rewrites of the level 4 and 5 maneuvers last night. Here they are:

LEVEL 4 MANEUVERS
Blade Tempest [Whirlwind Attack]: Instead of normal attacks, make one melee attack against each opponent within range, up to the attacking character's level in targets.
Demon's Reflexes [Initiative Boost]: Add +2 to the speed of all actions performed.
Fists of Heaven [Improve Damage 3]: Increase unarmed damage to 1d10.
Immortal's Feet [Light Step]: The character may walk on water, bamboo branches, etc. without touching the ground or leaving footprints.
Moving Wave Fist [Chi Blast]: Make ranged chi attacks, damage 1d12, range 60', speed 4.
Touch of the Yellow Springs [Debilitate]: An opponent hit must save vs. poison (with a -2 penalty) or lose 1 point of Constitution immediately, and each day thereafter (a save is allowed, at -2, each day). This continues until the character dies or receives a Cure Disease spell. Using this maneuver counts as an average speed (4) major action, not as an attack. No other attacks may be made in the same round.

LEVEL 5 MANEUVERS
Chi Leech [Absorb Life]: Heal an amount of hit points equal to that just inflicted by one attack each day.
White Tiger Smash [Triple Damage]: Attack at -6, and if successful roll triple the normal damage dice (before modifiers).
Green Dragon's Touch [Cure Disease]: Cure any one disease magically, once per week.
Yellow Unicorn Strike [Greater Immobilize]: Attack at -4, and the target hit must save vs. paralyzation or be immobilized for 1d4+1 rounds. Immobilized characters cannot perform any actions and are automatically hit.
Red Phoenix Stance [Final Stance]: AC increases to 18, +1 for each lesser stance known.
Way of the Black Tortoise [Damage Immunity]: Take no damage from the selected type of weapon: blunt, missile, piercing, slashing. Magical weapons always do normal damage.
___________________________________________________

There's one new maneuver that wasn't in Dragon Fist, Demon Reflexes, that adds +2 to initiative. I figured it seemed like an appropriate power for a martial arts game, and also means there are equal numbers of level 4 and level 5 maneuvers, rather than more of the higher level.

Your Kung Fu is Strong

Just finished the first draft of the first three levels of martial arts maneuvers for Flying Swordsmen RPG (for those not in the know, Dragon Fist, which I'm sim-cloning, has a chart similar to spell acquisition charts for all characters to learn these maneuvers as they advance in level):

LEVEL 1 MANEUVERS

Fists of Steel [Improved Damage 1]: Increase unarmed damage to 1d6.

Hornet's Sting [Stun]: Attack at -2, and the target hit must save vs. paralyzation or be stunned for 1 round. Stunned characters cannot perform a stunt and suffer -4 to AC.

Little Whirlwind [Increase Speed]: When making Acrobatics stunts, increase speed by 10x the stunt die result in feet for that round.

Monkey's Dance [Withdraw]: Do not draw attacks when leaving melee at full speed if an Acrobatics stunt is made for the round.

Snatch the Pebble [Improved Called Shot]: -2 penalty to called shots, instead of the normal -4 penalty.

Spider Scuttle [Prone Fighting]: Suffer no penalties when in a prone position.

Swaying Grass Stance [First Stance]: AC increases to 12.

Tiger Vault [Leaping]: Jump 20' plus 1' per level, even from a dead stop.

Tumbling Leaves [Lessen Fall]: Ignore falls of 20 feet or less, half damage from greater falls.

Waves on the Beach [Instant Stand]: Stand from a prone position without losing actions for the round.

LEVEL 2 MANEUVERS

Cleanse the Chi [Healing]: Once per day, the character may regain 2 hit points per level.

Dragon and Tiger [Extra Attack]: The character may make one extra attack with an off hand weapon or martial arts each round with no penalties to hit.

Felling Trees [Trip/Throw]: A successful attack at -2 to hit knocks the opponent prone. Prone targets suffer -4 to AC and must spend one round to get up.

Fists of Jade [Improved Damage 2]: Increase unarmed damage to 1d8.

Grab the Serpent's Tail [Disarm]: A successful attack at -2 to hit disarms the opponent. A second attack roll allows the attacker to decide where the weapon goes, otherwise it flies 2d6 feet in a random direction.

Immortal's Sight [Perception]: Detect opponents on all sides equally, unless hidden or invisible.

Secret of the Trigram [Fast Spellcasting]: When casting spells, increase initiative by +1. Only Shamans and Wizards may learn this maneuver.

Stone Ox Charge [Breakthrough]: When making Fortitude stunts, wooden walls and similar obstructions do not hinder movement or cause damage when breaking through them.

Way of Water Stance [Second Stance]: AC increases to 14, +1 if Swaying Grass Stance is also known.

LEVEL 3 MANEUVERS

Cloud Somersault [Flight]: Fly 60'+10'/level. Must land at the end of each round or fall.

Iron Skin [Damage Reduction]: Take half damage from the selected type of weapon: blunt, missile, piercing, slashing. Magical weapons always do full damage.

Phoenix Strike [Double Damage]: Attack at -4, and if successful roll double the normal damage dice (before modifiers).

Secret of the Zodiac [Resist Magic]: +2 bonus to saving throws against magical spells and effects.

Shooting Star Strike [Lesser Immobilize]: Attack at -4, and the target hit must save vs. paralyzation or be immobilized for 1 round. Immobilized characters cannot perform any actions and are automatically hit.

Twin Viper Strike [Double Attack]: When making Acrobatics stunts, on a successful attack, a second opponent adjacent to the target struck with equal or lower AC also takes damage.

Twisting Bamboo Stance [Third Stance]: AC increases to 16, +1 for each lesser stance known.

____________________________________________________________

None of this is OGC yet. It's still in draft phase. But then I don't care if anyone wants to borrow it for their home game.

Back on track?

Pat, Josh and myself were the only ones to show up for board games last night. Lucy and the other Korean gals were busy, Alex had to work late (as always), and Chloe canceled at the last minute.

Anyway, Josh had asked me to bring my Classic D&D stuff, and I did.

Because there were only the two players, Josh ran both his lvl 2 Magic-User Mork, and his 1st level (but with some XP) Fighter Mindy. Pat's Fighter had died fighting a bear, so he ran both his lvl 3 Cleric Sarda and a new Fighter he rolled up on the spot.

I decided to try out the "shields shall be splintered" house rule, as well as the idea that any 'special maneuvers' or 'called shots' would be handled with a normal attack roll, with the defender deciding to accept the penalty or else take normal damage, unless the attacker rolled a natural 20, as I've discussed before.

We started where we'd left them (Amy's in Ireland for a year, so we just ignored her character and assumed Pat's new Fighter had been there all along). They'd pissed off Cliodna, Queen of the Elves of the Blackwood, but still wanted to get their magic items identified. So they went to the village's blacksmith (who happened to be a Hero-Magician), hoping that he could ID their stuff and would have some magical gear for sale. [Too much 3/4E lately, I think...]

Anyway, he told them how to identify the stuff themselves. Use read magic on the scroll, sip the potion, and just open up the bag and look inside. The scroll was cursed, and I had Josh roll randomly by the book. He rolled to lose 1 magic item, and he had that ring of wishes and 2 potions of healing. Another d6 roll with a result of 1-2 would have meant the ring went bye-bye, but he rolled a 5, so a potion disappeared instead. Pat's Cleric ended up with 5 sling stones +1 (in the bag) and a potion of animal control.

As they were headed back out to confront the hobgoblins again, one of the elves stopped them and asked them to reconsider. If they did a favor to Cliodna, he assured them, she'd be happy to perform a favor for them in the future. Being typical greedy human adventurers, they didn't want favors--they wanted magic items that would help them take out the hobgoblins and kobolds on Whitebeard Mountain (and get that magic sword they'd heard rumors that the hobgoblins had).

Well, that worked, and they went back to Cliodna, explained their plan, and agreed to take out the other orc tribe plaguing the elves in exchange for some magic items (one potion or scroll for each survivor if they brought back the orc chieftain's head).

They go to the orc caves, and the first room in there's a giant horned chameleon which doesn't surprise them, but they manage to surprise. I let them know they had the options of getting a free round of attacks, or just sneaking by without it even noticing them. They eventually decided to try to lure it closer, then try a sleep spell, running when that didn't work. They came back and put a sling stone through its eye using the called shot house rule, then ran away again. About this time, I reminded them that they had a potion of animal control.

Pat's Cleric downed it, and with the help of the giant lizard, and throwing severed orc heads around in strange doorways (also avoiding a trap by sheer dumb luck--2 in 6 chance to dump anyone passing over into a pit, but no luck for my dice...) they cleared out the orcs just one turn before the potion wore off. When they got to the chieftain's throne room the lizard was on its last legs, and they were out of spells and sorta wounded. Josh had Mork use a wish to restore the party to full strength (hit points and spells memorized) and I allowed it (having discussed how greedy or metagame wishes tend to backfire, while altruistic wishes with in-game intentions tend to be allowed, at least by me).

With that, the lizard and a sleep spell took out most of the orcs. Two lost morale finally at the end, so there was one captive (the lizard ate one surrendering orc at the PC's command). They found the trade goods that had been stolen, as well as a box of gems, and took the gems, prisoner and chieftain's head back to Cliodna (who sent people to recover the trade goods).

No PC deaths, clever play especially by Josh, although Pat also had some good ideas, a bunch of dead orcs, and a nice treasure netted them an even 8000xp. Divided 4 ways, and that was not only just enough for the new Fighter to level, but put the other 3 characters over the top as well. So now Sarda is 4th level and Mork is 3rd level, meaning they each get 2nd level spells. Josh thought about it a lot and chose ESP, as it's good for dungeoneering and scouting.

They were rewarded by Cliodna with their choice of potion or scroll. Pat's Fighter got a potion of water breathing, and his Cleric got a scroll of snake charm. Josh's Fighter got a scroll of protection from undead, and his Magic-User got a 'special' scroll (using the borrowed Holmes idea) that turned out to be a scroll of petrification (rolled on the wands table).

Only one special attack was attempted (Pat put out the lizard's eye before it was controlled by the potion), but Josh's Fighter went through about 5 shields (replacing his lost shields with orc shields whenever a combat was finished). I'm liking both of those rules, even though we didn't get much chance to try out the special attacks one.

Special, Unusual Attacks and Called Shots in Classic D&D

A while back (2 weeks to a month, I think), I was reading some blog or other that I can't seem to locate now, talking about a simple system for allowing called shots to various body parts, special attacks like pulling the rug out from under a swordsman's feet, disarms, wrestling, etc. without the standard "take a penalty to hit, and if you hit it will work" stuff that often gets used, and makes people not want to do them so often.

The idea was that the player declares they'll try such and such a move. They roll to hit as normal. If they hit, they succeed as long as the opponent's player allows them to succeed, or on a critical hit they succeed even if the opponent's player doesn't want them to succeed. If the opponent doesn't want the special attack to succeed, they take damage as normal.

I think that was how it went anyway. I'm intrigued by the possibilities for this, as I'm a fan of swashbuckling movies and would love to add in more of this sort of thing to my D&D games.

But the problem is that Classic D&D doesn't use critical hits. Sure, you can always just do it on a natural 20, but shouldn't Fighter types be better at this than the Magic-Users? I'd rather not bring in d20 system style confirmation rolls. But then I was looking at the rules for monsters that "swallow whole." That's basically a monster doing exactly this--making a special type of attack that goes off on a crit, and does normal damage on any other successful role.

Of course, not every monster gets handled the same way. Giant Toads only succeed on a natural 20 against Dwarves and Halflings, Caecillia and T-Rex get a natural 19-20, and the granddaddy of swallowing whole, the Purple Worm, gets a natural 20 or 4 better than needed to hit to succeed.

This gives me two options for implementation:

Option 1, Level Based:
Low level characters only auto succeed on a natural 20.
Hero level (1st rise in attacks/saves 4th for Fighters, 5th for Clerics/Thieves, 6th for M-Us) get a natural 19-20.
Super-Hero level (8th for Fighters, Name for everyone else) get natural 20 or 4 better.

Option 2, Class Based:
Non-Fighter types (M-U) only auto succeed on a natural 20
Semi-Fighter types (Cleric, Thief) get a natural 19-20
Fighter types (Fighters, Demi-Humans) get a natural 20 or 4 better

Might work. I may give Option 2 a try and see how it goes. Not sure how the players would react to the Name level guys losing the natural 19... Not that we'll be at Name level any time soon in my Classic sandbox game.