In-Game Rulings - List 1

This is something I'll post periodically as I have things to post.  It will consist of mostly a dump of in-game rulings I've made and will serve as a record for future use (and to make certain both groups are operating under the same rulings).

Spell Limitations:
The following spell limitations are now available:
LIM: Requires 10 pts in ______ college (-1/4)
LIM: Requires 20 pts in ______ college (-1/2)
LIM: Requires 40 pts in ______ college (-1)

This provides a structure to spells in a spell college and a rough path of progression for wizards in that college.  There should be a handful of spells in a college that do not have one of these limitations, enough that an apprentice can eventually gain 10 points of spells.  The next tier of spells require 10 points spent in the college and there should be enough that the journeyman wizard can buy at least 20 points in spells, gaining access to the next tier.  This repeats for two more tiers with only accomplished wizards with a wide range of magic being able to access the most difficult magics (those requiring 40 points be spent on spells in the college).

Magic Item Costs:
Healing Potions
Healing potions may be purchased from a Temple of Shallya for 50g.  This provides 8d6 Healing that may be taken either all at once or in sips as small as 1d6.  The potion comes in a ceramic vial with thick walls and sealed with a solid cork.  It will survive normal wear and tear, but a big fall may break it open, spilling the contents.  The cost on this item may be too low, but it is where I'm setting it for now.

Equipment Cost Modifiers:
New Zwicke
All glassware costs 3x normal due to lack of production facilities.
Certain items needing fine detail work in their manufacture are also 3x cost.

Lucan's Clock
All foodstuff is 2x cost.

More War of the Mecha

 Here are a few more rules bits for use with War of the Mecha.  I'm working on these in my spare time or to take a break from other things I'm doing.  Enjoy!

Dropping Mecha

Mecha can be air-dropped over an area by dropships (as opposed to the dropship landing and them walking off). This requires the mecha pilot to select a target hex and make a Piloting roll. A failed roll does falling damage at one level of elevation per point roll is missed by. Additionally, the mecha scatters one hex point the roll was missed by, with a failure by five or more indicating the mecha missed the map and is destroyed for the purposes of the scenario. The direction of scatter is determined by rolling 1d6, with “1” being north and counting clockwise around the target hex.

Dropped mecha land during movement, but cannot attack the turn they land. They may be targeted for attacks at +1 to the roll.

Mecha Lifting Capabilities

Mecha with a functioning arm may carry things (usually objectives of some sort). The maximum capacity is based on mecha size.

Mecha Size	Lifting Max.
Light	3 tons
Medium	5 tons
Heavy	7 tons
Hardened	9 tons

A mecha taking its first critical hit to the arm while carrying an object has a 50-50 chance of hitting the arm carrying the item. Roll 1d6: on a 4-6, the arm carrying the item is hit and the item is dropped. If the mecha takes its second critical hit while carrying an item, the item is automatically dropped.

Additions to War of the Mecha

[So I'm messing around with the War of the Mecha rules, a simplified set of rules for playing BattleTech. The original rules fit on one side of a single page and cover the basics. I've come up with some rules for interacting with buildings and here they are. I haven't play-tested them yet, but will soon. Leave me a comment if you beat me to it so I know how they play.]

Patrick’s Additions #1

Buildings

Mecha can move into or onto a building. If the building can support it, a mecha can jump to the roof or climb onto a Level 1 or 2 building. If the building cannot support the mecha, the building collapses and the mecha falls, taking falling damage (1d6 damage per size class of the mecha) plus 1d6 damage per level of the building’s elevation. Mecha can enter the upper levels of buildings from the roofs of adjacent buildings.

Moving into a building causes a Piloting roll, modified by building type and distance moved so far that turn. Exiting a building requires an additional roll. On a successful roll, the mecha takes no damage, but the building take 1d6 damage per size category of the mecha. On a failed roll, the mecha takes damage equal to the buildings current SP, but does not fall.

Building	SP	Supports	MP Cost	Piloting Mod.
Light	15	Light mecha only	2	0
Medium	40	Medium mecha or lighter	3	-1
Heavy	90	Heavy mecha or lighter	4	-2
Hardened	120	Assault mecha or lighter	5	-3
Piloting Roll Mod. For Movement: -1 for 1-4 hexes, -2 for 5-8 hexes, and -3 for 9+ hexes

Buildings may be shot at, providing a +4 bonus for being immobile. Buildings reduced to 0 SP collapse into rubble. Mecha inside a building that collapses takes 1d6 damage per category of the building times the levels of the building above the mecha (so a mecha in the ground floor of an elevation 4 hardened building takes 16d6 damage when it collapses).  Mecha on the roof or an upper floor also suffers falling damage.

Improvised Jousting Rules

So last night the two cavaliers in my Southern Reaches campaign finally reached the snapping point in smack talking at each other and a challenge was issued (see SR 43: Showdown at the River when I finally get it typed up).  The two cavaliers lined up against each other at an improvised list...and suddenly I needed jousting rules.

Now I could have used the combat system in the Pathfinder RPG rules and run it that way, but that seemed wrong - initiative and to hit rolls just don't work when the action is supposed to be simultaneous.  So after some quick thought, here's what I came up with:

Assumption: Cavaliers have trained specifically to ride at someone and hit them with a lance, so they are very competent at it.


Conclusion: Rolling initiative and to hit is pointless, therefore they are skipped.  Only damage and a Ride check to stay on matter.

Step 1: Describe cavaliers taking place at each end of the list.
Step 2: Describe them riding pell-mell at each other and hitting in the center (just like in the movies).
Step 3: Both players roll damage, remembering multipliers for lances in a charge.
Step 4: Divide damage by 5 (round down) and apply it as a negative modifier for the opponent's Ride check.
Step 5: Both players make a DC 20 Ride check, including the penalties from their opponent.
Step 6: Check results:
            Both make Ride check: both stay mounted - apply damage (non-lethal if blunted tips were used) and line up again for another pass.

            One makes Ride check: successful rider stays on and wins, the other falls to the ground and loses.

            Both fail Ride check: both knocked to ground - apply damage and check to see who's conscious:
                       Both conscious: remount and repeat process
                       Only one conscious: conscious one is winner, other loser
                       Both unconscious: both fail and lose honor

This gives a fairly quick resolution and makes the Ride skill just that more valuable to a cavalier, which it should be.  Running a joust this way levels the playing field and gets rid of a bunch of extraneous stuff that would hamper the scene.  Initiative is meaningless when the two combatants are, by definition, moving at the same time.  To-hit rolls are also meaningless for several reasons.  The only critical parts are "how hard did you hit" and "can you stay on".  Experienced jousters will have more ranks in Ride and be better at staying on their mount, plus have feats to improve their capabilities at jousting.  Less experienced riders won't and it will show.

Not needing to roll to hit is from the Streetfighter RPG, which uses the assumption that streetfighters are competent and can hit anyone they want, the real question is how hard.  Dividing the damage by 5 is from the Hero System, where dividing by five to get a modifier is fairly standard for many situations, plus it gives some good modifiers without wiping out the skill of the rider.


This worked out really well in-game and I'll use it in the future when I run some sort of jousting tourney in-game.

Quick Update (OK, not really that quick)

I'm on vacation now for the next two weeks, so I'll post a few things here as I go.  I don't know how often I'll be posting during this time, but it will be at least the scheduled Tuesday and Thursday postings.  This, by the way, might not count as today's post - I have an adventure log I'm working on, which should be finished this afternoon before Date Night with the wife.  Assuming I get enough time to write it.

We played Super Rat again last night, making it down to the fifth level of Dyson's Delve.  The DM has announced that he has the level UP from Dyson's Level 1 done and is planning a wider story arc away from the Delve once we reach a stopping point he has set for the Delve.  [Said another way, we will not be exploring all 11 levels of the Delve as the DM wants to do some stuff away from the dungeon setting.]  I'm interested in seeing what he develops.  He's got a good grasp of the rules mechanics, so I'm curious what kind of world he creates for us to explore.

I've always had an interest in wargaming and historical miniatures.  It's not my primary focus of interest in gaming, but it is something I enjoy doing when I get the opportunity.  I've used the Warhammer Fantasy Battles rules to set up battles for a fantasy RPG campaign I've run in the past (I own a copy of the 1st edition rules, which have the guidelines for point-costing new units properly).  While do-able and enjoyable, there is a limit to what can be effectively fielded and the magic system is radically different from what I use in the RPG.  As a result, I've been looking for something else to use.

This year I came across the Hordes of the Things ruleset and I like what I see (I have the free download of the rules).  This gives me a fairly easy to use set of tactical rules, but now I'd like some campaign rules to go with them.  Reading several blogs in the blogosphere, I came across references to Tony Bath's Ancient Wargaming, which includes his much touted work, Setting Up a Wargames Campaign.  Thanks to a gift from a good friend, I now own this book and it has been placed on the top of my reading stack for a quick reading to see if it is what I want/need.

On a different topic, I am progressing slowly with my ideas for a sci-fi campaign.  I have some basic game mechanic questions I need to work the answer out, like the size of the ship the PCs are using.  A small ship might make sense, but a larger ship allows characters to be off-stage when their player is not able to make the game.  I may do a mix-up and start with a small ship (either a rental or a ship's boat they managed to jury-rig) to get off planet to the "floating hulks" in the star system and then let the PCs select a ship, secure it, and then explore it.  Hmm.  I really like that idea.  Give them a McGuffin piece of software to blow out the Apocalypse Virus from the ship's systems and let them learn about what they've just secured as they go.

The other question I want to consider is: will they have passengers?  I think the answer is "maybe".  I've about decided that I'm going to use the HERO System (FREd version - Fifth Revised Edition for those not familiar), which allows for the possibility of starting characters being on the run from someone or searching for something or just wandering (see: half the main characters in Firefly for examples), and bolt on the relatively system agnostic parts of Traveller I like (the sector, system, and life forms creation sub-systems and maybe the character generation system with an adaption kit between rules sets).  If someone chooses that option, I'm good with it.  If no one does, I'm also good with it.  Eventually the possibility should arise for the players to take on passengers, gamblers, companions, or even a research team.

I've also started working out what possible levels of technology/society will be possible.  This will range from the exceedingly rare (at least at the start) star systems that have also reclaimed the ability to travel the stars to high tech societies with only system wide or orbital only space travel, to complete collapses to alien races moving in on previously human worlds.  That last part will need some more thought.  I want there to be alien races already known, but I want the opportunity to insert new alien races as well.  The Hobgoblin Star Empire should be possible, nay even required.

That's all for now - back to the Southern Reaches adventure log and the Death of Su Bel.  (Heh, heh.)

Thinking about the Next Campaign: Traveller Option

I’ve been giving more thought to what I’m going to run after Southern Reaches gets to a stopping point. By “stopping point” I’m thinking somewhere between levels 12 and 15. I haven’t set a fixed point yet, but it will be somewhere in that area, which means next summer at the earliest.

I’m of two minds as to which way to go. I have two general options in mind: 1) retire the current PCs, scroll time forward 10-20 years (possibly more), update and revise the map of the area, and restart with new PCs; or 2) Try a sandbox science fiction game, probably using Traveller (the current Mongoose Publishing version). In this posting, I’m going to discuss the Traveller option.

I’ve been (slowly) reading through the rule book for Traveller as I’ve had some time to do so and I’m liking what I see. The rules are fairly light, which should help getting my gaming group to accept them. Not that they care for rules-light over rules-heavy (most of them actually prefer the HERO System), it’s just requires less time investment to learn the rules. I like the skill system, which assumes that if you have the skill at all, you are automatically successful at normal skill use, unless under pressure or things are dangerous. So with Pilot-0 (lowest level of the Pilot skill), a character can fly a starship from one system to another and land without needing to roll any dice. Now if the starport is under attack or you have to dodge through an asteroid field while being chased by hostile craft, then the dice are needed. I like skills and my characters usually have tons of them, so I appreciate an elegant set of skill rules and Traveller has them.

The only thing I’m uncertain of about the Traveller rules is adding alien races. The standard milieu for Traveller is the Third Imperium and I don’t plan on using that at all. I want to add D&D races as the aliens, mostly as a form of short-hand for alien cultures. I like the idea of techie kobolds, high gravity world dwarves, and low gravity world elves (although I might jettison elves – haven’t decided yet). With Traveller being humano-centric almost to exclusivity, this means some additional work on my part to get more alien races, especially if I want them available for player access at the start of the campaign. Speaking of which…

The idea behind the campaign is exploring 2-3 generations (maybe more – I haven’t decided that yet either) after interstellar society collapsed due to a big, messy war. One of the final stages would have been attacks on knowledge in the form of incredibly virulent and semi-sentient computer viruses that trashed both general knowledge and engineering archives. Coupled with devastating planetary bombardments targeting manufacturing capacity and highly destructive space battles between ships and planets became isolated from each other with limited ability to rebuild. Worlds that were not self-sufficient experienced drastic drops in populations from famine, plague, or the failure of life support systems in hostile environments. Many self-sufficient worlds had to deal with political anarchy as communication and power systems crashed and failed.

Not all data/knowledge was lost. Isolated systems that were kept isolated were immune to the virus attacks and copies of information on removable storage media were safe. Once infected systems were isolated and purged, knowledge could be pooled again, but what was left was spotty and often incomplete, particularly in the area of starship construction and systems. Surviving engineers and scientists piece together what they can and start experimenting to rediscover the missing information while society is rebuilt on a planetary scale.

Time passed and nothing was heard from the dark. There was no word on which worlds might or might not have survived the war.

The players represent a small group from a world that once manufactured (and stored) luxury starships as its primary trade. This means that when their world was able to recover, there were many dead starships available, both on the planet and “parked” (or abandoned) in the system. Laws were in place that allowed anyone who could secure a ship, purge its databanks, and get it running again could claim the ship as their own. The player characters are a group that did so, but at great cost. Armed with an old copy of a star map, a (mostly) functional ship, and a heavy debt load, the characters are ready to set out and (hopefully) find their fortunes.

That's my basic idea for a Traveller campaign.  It contains the exploratory aspect I like from a West Marches-style campaign and uses a game system that supports this style of play without having to create a bunch of rules sub-systems.

Rules Updates

I’ve started OK-ing the new Pathfinder Advanced Player’s Guide for use in the Southern Reaches campaign. I’ve made it through the new race options and new base classes, approving both. I’ve started reading the new class options for the original base classes and have approved them as I do not anticipate anything game-changing from what I’ve read so far. The reading has been slow because they really did a good job fleshing things out and making them workable – but man that takes some reading fortitude to plow through.

To date, I’ve only had some minor adoptions by the players. Thorngrim chose to swap half-orc ferocity for sacred tattoo. A sorcerer from my other campaign picked up two new spells from the APG (burning gaze and dancing lantern if you're curious), and the paladin from that campaign is interested in possibly switching to inquisitor. We might have to do a temporary switch to see if it is a good fit for the character concept.

So, what to do when the game you’re playing released new rules?

There are two types of new rules: a complete new edition or supplemental rules for the current edition. New rules editions can be really great or really a pain for a GM. If the new edition refines or unifies the application of previous rules (e.g., Champions 4th edition to Champions 5th edition), this can be great and the transition fairly smooth. If the new edition is a complete re-write of the rules from the ground up, like D&D 4E, then you need to decide with your players whether or not to use the new edition or stick with the old one.

In olden times, it was pretty much assumed that the new edition of the rules would eventually be adopted (grognards notwithstanding). With the introduction of the OGL and the retroclones, plus a vaster array of base game systems to choose from, this is no longer the case. It is much easier to stick with older rulesets when the primary manufacturer moves on, especially if your group plays a form of D&D (which is statistically very likely). If you are playing a game that is not covered by the OGL (or something similar) then things are a bit more dicey. Hard to get new players involved if they can’t get their own copy of the books, especially if any length of time has passed since the game went out of print.

From the GM perspective, adoption of a new edition boils down to this: are the advantages of the new ruleset greater than the aggravation of having to re-spec every NPC and monster in your campaign? Depending on what style of campaign you run (fixed length versus perpetual), this conversion process can be a major effort or a titanic effort. You also need to take into account how your players feel about the new rules and what will happen to their characters as part of the conversion.

There are several ways to incorporate a new edition. One is to just take a break from running that campaign, let someone else run something for a while, and convert everything wholesale. This could be modified by just converting things immediately involved and do the rest as necessary, but this seems to just draw out the aggravation. I feel a clean break is better for game play and the GM’s sanity. A possible sideways step is to finish out your current story arc, invoke a major shift in the way the world works, and restart with new characters elsewhere and/or elsewhen. Living Forgotten Realms has done something similar to this with the Forgotten Realms. I have a friend who is in the process of doing this for the second time for his homebrew campaign (2nd to 3rd ed AD&D and now to the Pathfinder RPG).

Now what about “just” a rules supplement?

I’m thinking about the Advanced Players Guide for the Pathfinder RPG, but this could also include adding Unearthed Arcana to AD&D or the Supplements to OD&D – really anywhere you have new rules for existing classes, new classes, new spells and/or powers, or alternate rules for combat or something else being added to the core ruleset. Here the GM’s work is a bit harder. Do you accept it all as written and hope for the best? Do you pick and choose what you want and leave the rest?

The answer is: it depends.

One of the issues with D&D 3.x was unfettered rules bloat. If you, as a DM, allowed everything published into your game, you fairly quickly achieved a singularity and the whole thing collapsed in upon itself. This led to either picking and choosing or house ruling stuff. I prefer running the rules as written, so everyone has the same rules. As a result, I am reluctant to accept rules piecemeal, but have there was a clear benefit to doing so.

With the APG, I’m leaning toward adapting the whole book as-is and then house-ruling anything that becomes problematic. From what I’ve read so far, things seem fairly balanced overall with minimal power creep, if any. Again, this leaves everyone in the group with access to exactly the same set of rules, rules that seem to have been written with balance (not word/page-count) in mind. Your mileage may vary.

I think that's enough rambling for today.