Why RPGs DON'T Suck

No matter how good or bad any individual game's rules, supplements, modules, published settings or the like may be, if you think RPGs suck you're probably part of the problem (no, I'm not providing a link to Mr. Sheppard's blog, you've likely seen it already, and if you haven't you aren't missing much).

What's right about RPGs?

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

Exhibits D-O (pictorial)

With all the potential AWESOME out there, who cares if something is not 'creative' to some douche on the internet with a few RPG publishing credits?

Random Weekend Stuff

It's Sunday night here, I'm a little bit sick, and fairly stressed out about some work stuff.  But I figured I should post a bit anyway.

Got a double-shot of Sigurd-esque dragonslaying today.  I finished reading The Children of Hurin, and finally got around to watching The Barbarians.

For those of you who maybe don't know, Sigurd is the hero of the Volsungasaga, the Icelandic version of the German Nibelungenlied (made famous by Wagner's opera).   It's about how Sigurd slays the dragon Fafnir, takes his cursed treasure, then gets involved with valkyries, a pair of brothers who covet the treasure and the valkyrie, and even Attila the Hun.  It's one of those stories I think should be on an Appendix N type reading list.  Good fodder for any gamer.

Anyway, watching the Barbarians, I'm reminded of how cool the character called Dirtmaster is.  Just look at this guy.

Dirtmaster will definitely have to appear as an NPC sometime soon in a game I run.

The Barbarians

Last night I downloaded* the 1987 campy fantasy movie The Barbarians. Haven't rewatched it yet, but as with the Allan Quatermain movies, I know it's crap but I sure had fun watching it when I was young.

Mostly what I remember are the weird gypsy circus freaks that the twins grew up with, gladiatorial combat with the helmeted oppressors, brooding & cackling villain, sexy thief chick along with the barbarian brothers, and borrowing Sigurd's dragonslaying technique (can't fault them there, Tolkien also borrowed it).

Yeah, I'm a fan of campy B cinema. There's a reason movies like Conan the Destroyer or Van Helsing end up in my DVD collection.

*the movie's never been released on DVD, if it were I'd have bought it. If it ever is released, I likely WILL buy it.

Back to Basics

I've spent quite a bit of time in the past couple years designing some versions of AD&D classes for use with Classic D&D that I'm happy with and think play well with the others. I've got a Barbarian, Bard, Cavalier (Paladin), Druid, Illusionist, Ranger, and Half-Orc in addition to the standard 7 (which have some house rules attached to them to a greater or lesser extent).

When I first started up this blog I was often blogging about them, but I lost steam somewhere around the time I'd gotten past the classic 4 character classes.

I think it's partially because in the back of my mind, I've realized that these extra classes are sort of pointless.

Sure, the Cavalier allows a Fighter type to cast some Cleric spells, Druid allows the Mentzer Druid spells to be availabe, Illusionist allows some AD&D illusion spells to be ported over, Half-Orc works as a Fighter/Thief or Assassin stand-in, etc.

But maybe I don't really need all that.

Give any character with a high Int and Cha a musical instrument and they can be a Bard. Give any character woodscraft and they can be a Ranger. A Barbarian is just a character from a more primitive area than the main campaign focus.

I'm sure you've heard it all argued before on Dragonsfoot, Knights and Knaves Alehouse, or some other FRPG website.

Anyway, I think I'm gonna scrap those extra classes as player options (at least at first) and only use them as NPCs from time to time.

Back when we were trying to get the Korean gals to play D&D, they really got in the way. Too many choices, and they had no real way to judge them. It also leads to the line of thinking among a lot of players a few years younger than me who think everything should have an effect on your character sheet.

Back in the day, we used to just roleplay out differences. My main character, Gwydion, was a Fighter who I modeled after a knight. Heavy armor, two handed sword, war horse (later griffon) and lance. My best friend, who goes by the internet alias KillingMachine, had two of his secondary characters named after the protagonists of the cheesy 80's swords & boobies B-movie "The Barbarians" but mechanically they were no different from Gwydion. They were just roleplayed as barbarians, and we rolled with it.

That's what I think I need to bring back to my games to make me happy. Players can be anything they want through roleplay, as long as they use one of the 7 basic classes for game mechanics.

To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.

So I've been neglecting the run-downs of my new character classes. Anyway, here's my Barbarian class. It's basically the Dwarf, minus the racial abilities, with a few of its own (slightly inspired by the UA Barbarian, but only slightly).

The first big difference between the Barbarian and the Dwarf is that the Barbarian needs slightly more XP to level up. I've got them using the same progression as Magic-Users. They also get a d10 HD, the only class in my Classic roster. They're limited to Level 12 like Dwarves. They have a minimum Con and Wis of 9, and Prime Requisites are Str and Con (both 13 or more, +5%, both 16 or more, +10%). They attack as Fighters, save as Dwarves. All weapons and armors allowed (but see below).

Their special abilities are the following:
Combat--they can set spears as Fighters, but cannot use the lance attack. At Name Level they can use the Smash maneuver, and at 12th they gain 2 attacks per round. They don't get parry or disarm from the high end Fighter abilities.

When wearing leather or no armor, they gain a +2 bonus to AC (-2 if you use the traditional AC system). They can use a shield and still get this bonus.

Foraging--Barbarians can forage for food better than other classes, with a range 1 higher than the terrain normally allows (normally 2 in 6, Barbs get a 3 in 6, etc.).

They get their native Barbarian language as a bonus language.

At high levels, they can either attract a horde (similar to UA) or build a stronghold as a Fighter.

Simple, effective, and provides a human class that's good at taking on the sorcerers of the world thanks to the high HD and excellent saving throws.