Category Archives: Owlbear Stabbings

Online Game #1

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I ran my first game since Feb 2020 this past weekend. Did it online, just to try it on and see and how it felt and

I had some friends who’ve been at my table regularly over the years on, mostly because they’re used to me screwing stuff up at a rapid pace and have displayed an admirable amount of tolerance.

Going in I printed up little DM screen braces to set the DM screen over my monitors and a little brace to set my webcam on (my work laptop has a built-in camera, but my personal desktop; not so much).

I used Discord for voice, video, and screensharing and owlbear.rodeo* for maps.

As I’ve noted: I more than a little live in web conferences, and it’s funny how different teams rapidly developed different customs around video on them. Some teams: cameras are usually on. Some teams: cameras are always on. (I’ve got a specific person up the chain who insists on seeing people’s faces, so you even though you’re working from home you know there’s a baseline level of how you need to dress.**) My teams: cameras are always off. So, it was nice to have cameras on during the whole thing and see people’s faces.

Despite my love of minis and the fact that I cut my teeth on D&D 4E: I find I don’t prefer particularly tactical combat when running RPGs… but I needed some way to show the maps because I’d rather just show “Here’s the space” than try to dictate room directions and bungle it. Being able to just have the map on the screen and shave back fog of war seemed like the least-effort, lowest-risk way to communicate space. Owlbear.rodeo was perfect for this: I just uploaded the maps that came with the electronic version of the adventure, fog of war’d everything, and erased as we went. I don’t have experience with other VTTs, but the fact that there are purchases involved with them signals that they bring a larger breadth of features than I want to engage with. This bowl of porridge was just right.

I used Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy, and ran The Incandescent Grottoes. I cannot emphasize how much I love the Necrotic Gnome house style for laying out dungeons: it’s so incredibly clean and usable at the table. All modules should follow this approach (and all megadungeons should synthesize it with the approach of Stonehell and/or Maze of the Blue Medusa).

We were rolling at 7PM and it was past midnight before we knew it: I think that’s a great sign! Unfortunately, I’d been up at 6 that morning (and really tossing since 4:30 thanks to the dogs), so to say that was past my bedtime was an understatement… I spent the next day feeling like roadkill.

I think everyone had a good time, though there was some expectations friction: I can see getting a little whiplash going from a 5E-style game to an OSR one. That’s why I insist so much on 3D6-in-order: it feels like its one of the clearest indications available of how expectations should be calibrated.

They got through maybe about a third of the space. Lost a party member early when they didn’t check the ceilings before entering a space, and two more near the end when they decided to engage a Gibbering Mouther in melee (the surprise there was that it was only two!).

All in all – definitely a success. I had a great time (and it was wonderful seeing those friends again; it’s been a minute!), and will definitely be doing it again.

I’m noodling up a manifesto to make more clear what I’m trying to get out of it and what players should expect, but my hope is to kick off Stonehell run that can accommodate a larger set of folks with a more flexible quorum. It’ll also have to be a school night because my butt is too damn old to game until midnight.

* I used the free, 1.0(?) version; I think I’d be happy to pay for the 2.0 version if I could figure out how to find the grid alignment tools (specifically the Manual Alignment rulers) they describe in this video.

** I don’t normally dress down unless I’m going to be painting, so “work appropriate” for me is pretty much “don’t wear a 40K t-shirt, just in case someone gets The Wrong Idea about what’s going on that.”

DCC Dark Sun Magic

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Someone asked about doing Dark Sun with DCC on G+, earlier today – this is a thing that’s comes up before and will come up again.  From it, though, I noodled through what I think might be an alright mechanic to model the Preserver / Defiler casting mode Dark Sun is known for.

—-

Wizards – Preserving / Defiling

When a wizard casts a spell, they must determine if they’re Preserving or Defiling.

Spell checks are 1d10 + (Caster level) + (Int modifier) + (Spellburning). Luck cannot modify this roll.

Preserving

When Preserving, a roll of a 1 is “Lost. Failure.” Spellburn functions normally per the book.

Defiling

When Defiling, a roll of a 1 is “Lost, failure, and worse!”  Spellburn does not function as normal.

Instead, the caster spellburns from lifeforms around them: they first determine how many points they wish to spellburn. 1d3 * that number is drained from any nearby creatures, evenly distributed (and randomly allocated as necessary). If an insufficient number of ability points are “available” to be spellburned, 1 square meter of earth will be killed and rendered unable to sustain plant life for each ability point shortfall (these will be the closest square meters to the caster that have not yet been killed).

DCC Neogi & Umber Hulk

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I felt like converting Neogi to DCC this morning, so I converted Neogi to DCC this morning.

Neogi (d8): Init +3; Atk claw +5 melee (1d2+3) or bite +4 melee (1d4+3 plus slowing poison) or dominate missile fire (special, 30′); AC 16; HD 5d8; hp 23; MV walk or climb 30′; Act 2d20; SP slowing poison, immune to illusions; SV Fort -1, Ref +3, Will +3; AL L.

Slowing poison – The bite of a neogi confers a slowing poison. The target of a successful bite attack must succeed at a DC 15 Fort save or lose 1d4 Personality, regained as if spellburned. Adjust Will save accordingly.

Dominate – 3 times a day, a Neogi may attempt to impose its subjugate another creature to its will. The target must succeed at a DC 15 Will save or be dominated by the neogi for 24 hours. Refer to Charm Person: depending on Judge’s preference for allowing PC’s to be controlled, “dominated” is either equal to a failure on the 12-13 result (dazed for 1d4 rounds) or a failure on the 14-17 (complete control, no suicidal actions, etc).

Neogi, Great Old Master: Init +0; Atk swallow +0 melee (1d12); AC 14; HD 20d8; hp 90; MV walk 15′; Act 1d20; SP swallow, full of young, immune to illusions; SV Fort +3, Ref -3, Will +6; AL L.

Swallow – If the Great Old Master Neogi is able to swallow or is fed another creature, it will do 1d12 damage to that creature every round until it is dead or that creature is able to cut itself out by doing 20 points of damage (damage caused by other creatures do not count for this).

Full of young – Great Old Masters are full of writhing young neogi; if it takes damage from a piercing, slashing, or burning attack, 2d4 neogi will crawl out of the wound and attack.

Umber Hulk (d4): Init +0; Atk claw +8 melee (3d4) or bite +7 (1d10); AC 18; HD 8d8+8; hp 44; MV walk or burrow 20′; Act 2d10′; SP confuse; SV Fort +6; Ref +0; Will -3; AL C.

Umber Hulk, Dominated (1/Neogi): Init +0; Atk claw +6 melee (3d4) or bite +5 (1d10); AC 18; HD 8d8+8; hp 44; MV walk or burrow 20′; Act 2d10′; SP confuse; SV Fort +4; Ref -2; Will -3; AL C.

Confuse – Anyone gazing into the eyes of an Umber Hulk must make a DC 13 Will Save or become confused, unable to tell friend from foe. Roll 1d8, modified by Luck: (2 or less) melee attack the nearest party member; (3-5) take no action this turn; (6+) melee attack the nearest enemy.  At the beginning of a character’s turn, a character can avert their eyes to avoid needing to make the Will Save, but count as blinded (suffering a -4 penalty) for any rolls involving the Umber Hulk.

All Stars are Lawful

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A couple of weeks back, Zak reposted an idea that Zzarchov had tossed out about “Each star is a sun in its own right.”

This sounded really cool to me… some ideas were tossed around about it, but none of them really clicked for me.  Last week, stuck on a plane, I noodled out my take on that gem and, since things have been pretty dead around here, I figured I’d regurgitate them here.

symbol_of_chaos_by_schunki-d4rljxh

ALL STARS ARE LAWFUL

  • Lawfulness varies from star to star; no two stars are the same.  Lawfulness is harmony with the natural order of a star.
  • Chaoticness is disharmony with a star, because it is an expression of harmony with a different star.
  • What is natural to Sol, our sun, is unnatural to all other stars, and vice versa.
  • Chaos of one star is different from that of every other. Every star’s law is unique.
  • Chaos is common. Specific types of Chaos is rare.
  • Places, people, and creatures can be Chaotic.
  • The more divergent a type of Chaos is from the Law, the more extremely different a place, person, or creature obeying it will be.  A Chaotic human: subtly different. A demonic, seven-headed Gnoll, unsubtly different.
  • Although this means that monsters and such are Chaotic, it also means that, by the light of a different sun, Lawful characters and creatures are the monsters. Perhaps subtly, perhaps not.
  • Stars are not conscious of this. Chaos is the radiation of another star’s rules, not an active, deliberate incursion.
  • This is why the Chaos symbol is the 8-pointed star.
  • Laws of nature behave differently around Chaotic places, people, and creatures, as they’re beholden to their own laws. This differs from one to another. Gravity works wrong, colors shift, synthesia occurrs, etc. as their Chaos subverts local Law.

I don’t know that that results in anything especially gameable, beyond maybe insisting that strange things be strange and have strange things happen around them. Maybe there’s something going with the idea of PCs getting dumped on a different world and radiating their own strangeness on an unwitting far-flung land.

WFRP: Temperamental XP

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four-humors-granger

Back when, I started running a game set during the Thirty Years War using WFRP 2E. I love WFRP 2E: it’s such a straightforward system, and I figured it’d be negligible to pull stuff in from any of the 40K RPG books to help make things Weird without any real effort.

The one place where it’s emphatically not held up is the career system. I mean, clearly it works great for what it’s supposed to do, but for a band of misfits on the run, it doesn’t offer much past “Okay, you can transition into the Vagabond career; don’t expect many opportunities to get out of it.”

I took a run at removing it without breaking the system too much a while back, messing around with Aptitudes, a la Only War (and now Dark Heresy), but it felt like a whole lot of mess for not enough payoff.  A couple of weeks ago, I took another stab at it: working off of Black Crusade this time.

Black Crusade (if’n you don’t know), is a precursor to the OW/DH Aptitude-based system: each advance is associated with one of the Chaos Gods: load up on too many in one category and similar advances get cheaper and dissimilar advances get more expensive.  So: a Veteran of the Long War who’s loaded up on talents related to stabbing will end up dedicated to Khorne… and will have a hard time buying talents favored by Slaanesh.

I’m doing a similar thing here, with the four temperaments.

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The Ekkeko-Supay Disk

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Ekkeko-Supay Header

With all the talk about the LotFP Magic Item Call, I’m reminded of my submission  to the LotFP Anniversary Contest a while back (a year and half? yeesh).  I don’t know that the PDF ever went out, so I might as well put it up here. Not enough RPG content here, anyway.

The Ekkeko-Supay Disk

This round disk, a handsbreadth across and less than an inch thick, is made of an unusual metal that is neither copper nor gold. In relief, it shows a man and a demon standing beneath a large, many-breasted woman, holding their arms to her womb. The style of the carvings clearly indicate that it’s of the New World.

If studied by an expert of Incan culture, the man is Ekkeko (god of wealth), the demon Supay (god of death) and the woman Mamma Allpa (fertility goddess). Why wouldn’t a character have sunk points into “Incan Culture?”

If a character sleeps with the disk under their pillow, they’ll awake remembering two dreams with perfect lucidity: the specifics aren’t necessarily the same (though they do tend to be specific), the themes are always the same.

  1. The character sees themselves stumbling across a windfall of wealth. This dream will always become a reality the following day. If these fruits are fleeting… such is the nature of wealth.
  2. The character sees death. Most often, this takes the form of a messy stillbirth… but not always.

The death is always that of one of the character’s descendants, always the farthest out into the future. A line destined to run one hundred generations… becomes one destined to run ninety-nine. If yet unborn (or even unconceived): the final scion of the line dies in the womb. If the character’s legacy is not to be a long one (ie: there are no future, unborn descendants) , the death will be that of one of their children; sudden, violent. If the character has no children, and will have no children: they’ll dream of their own sudden, violent, inescapable death.

As with the dreams of wealth, the dreams of death will always become a reality.

A character can dream above the Ekkeko-Supay disk as many evenings as they’d like. Until they run out of descendants, of course.

Converting D&D Stat Blocks to WFRP 2E

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D&D stat blocks run along these lines:

Orc: HD 1; AC 6 [13]; Atk 1 by weapon, usually spear (1d6) or scimitar (1d8); Move 9; Save 17; AL C;CL/XP 1/15; Special: None.

and I need them to look more like:

Ork Stat Block - WFRP 2E

Well; sorta.  A lot of the stuff in that target (WFRP) statblock just doesn’t matter; if it did, it’s significant enough that we wouldn’t be using a quick conversion to get it, or it’d be inferrable from the context the source (OSR) statline is presented in.

Do we really care that Orcs have Ride or Swim, Scale Sheer Surface, etc.?  Maybe… but if we did, we’d probably already know that.

WS, BS, S, T, Ag, Int, WP, Fel – Is this NPC poor/average/above average?  If their HD is < 5, use 20/25/30, set one stat to 40.  If their HD is >= 5, use 20/30/40, set one stat to 50.

A – Calculate W, divide by 10, rounding down.

W – If their is HD < 5, use ((HD-1) *4) + 12 If their HD is >=5, use ((HD-5)*6) + 30.

SB, TB – Derived from S, T.

M – Divide the listed Move by 3, rounding up.

Mag – 0 if not a spellcaster.  Fruity spell-like abilities or whatever don’t count for this; just let that stuff go off.  If they’re an honest-to-Chaos spellcaster: divide their HD by 3, rounding up, capped at 4.

IP, FP – Not relevant.

Skills – Most will be irrelevant or inferrable.  If they’re sneaky, they should have Concealment & Silent Move, for example.  If they’re fighty, they should probably have Dodge Blow (every WFRP NPC certainly seems to).  I wouldn’t even bother writing it down.

Talents – These are all irrelevant or inferable.

Armor Points – (AC-12)/2 for LotFP, rounding up.  (10-AC)/2 for S&W descending, rounding down.  Use your instincts about locations; some locations might have fewer Armor Points than this.

Weapons – Melee , Thrown Weapons: damage is SB + (# dice rolled -1).  Other Ranged Weapons: damage is # dice rolled + (die type/3), rounding down.  Infer whether or not the attack should be Impact (and maybe Tiring or Slow), Fast (and maybe Precise), Shrapnel, or Snare.

This is fuzziest, sloppiest part, honestly.  Use your gut.

Obviously, this isn’t perfect.

Comparing the results of the WFRP 2E Orc statblock to what I get when I convert the S&W statblock gets me:

     WS  BS  S   T   Ag  Int WP  Fel
WFRP 35  35  35  45  25  25  30  20  
S&W  30  20  30  40  20  20  30  20 
     A   W   SB  TB  M   Mag IP  FP
WFRP 1   12  3   4   4   0   0   0
S&W  1   12  3   3   3   0   -   -

Armor
WFRP Head 1, Arms 1, Body 3, Legs 0
S&W  All 2

Weapons
WFRP Choppa (+4 Round 1, +3 after)
S&W  Scimitar (+3, Impact)

The Orc is dumber, slower, weaker, clumsier, less tough and a lot worse at shooting (because, come on, Warhammer Orcs & Orks are bad shots).  The converted Choppa probably does a smidge more damage in the first round.  But that’s okay; If I cared that much about it, I’d build the NPC from the ground up.  All I’m trying to do here is convert one set of stats to another with a minimum amount of effort.

Not perfect, but good enough.

Another example:

Hill Giant: HD 8+2; AC 4 [15]; Atk 1 weapon (2d8); Move 12; Save 8; AL C; CL/XP 9/1100; Special: Throw boulders.

     WS  BS  S   T   Ag  Int WP  Fel
WFRP 33  25  69  59  18  14  24  14  
S&W  40  30  50  40  20  20  30  20 
     A   W   SB  TB  M   Mag IP  FP
WFRP 5   48  6   5   6   0   0   0
S&W  4   48  5   4   4   0   -   -

Armor
WFRP Head 0, Arms 0, Body 1, Legs 1
S&W  All 3

Weapons
WFRP Hand Weapon (+6, Impact)
S&W  Hand Weapon (+6, Impact), Throw Boulders (SB+4, Impact, Shrapnel)

I’m comparing a Warhammmer Giant to a Hill Giant.  The differences here are somewhat greater: but not by too much.  The only real problematic (>10%) differences here are in Strength and Toughness… but even then, they’re mitigated by damage and armor; the numbers work out the same.

Also, although I’m primarily coming at this from an OSR-y point of view (I’ve got some Lamentations & Swords & Wizardry modules I’d like to run and maybe I’d like to run them with WFRP 2E), I think it’d hold well enough for other versions of D&D.  Things probably get a little wobbly with the 3.x stack, but I think it’d hold up okay enough (using Level instead of HD, etc).

I don’t have the time on hand to do this properly, but I feel like I have to at least post a half-assed JsFiddle link that does the calculations for you: here’s the page and here’s the fiddle.

Thoughts?  Comments?

Complicating the Simple: Replacing the WFRP 2E Career Progression

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One of the things that came up last session was that the WFRP 2E career system doesn’t really jive with what I’m doing with the game.

Don’t get me wrong: I love the flavor the career system brings to the table and, were we doing a more urban or sandbox-style game, it would probably fit like a glove.  Instead, we’re doing a more traditional murderhobo (or, rather, “We’d be murderhobos except we’re so terrified of being killed by other murderhobos”) style game (which is by design).

Now, I know that the career system is part of the whole point of WFRP, but I don’t really care. We’re using the WFRP 2E system because I’m extremely comfortable with the system, having played in a Dark Heresy (its descendant) game for probably longer than any other game at this point. (Exalted might be a close second, but I doubt anyone would claim that it has a system one would describe as “salvageable”. Ideas, absolutely, but the not system as a whole.)  So, I’m comfortable with it. It’s flexible, does what I need it to do, and gets out of the way.  That’s what we want, right?

But when the PCs are sprinting away from danger and trying to find a safe place to not be murdered or eaten by bears… none of those careers really matter. They’re all Vagabonds.  Before that, they were Militiamen and Camp Followers. Before that they had lives doing stuff for which the Career System was useful.

There are a couple of fixes for this:

  • Just roll with it. Stick to the RAW, let everyone switch into the Vagabond (or similar career) if they’re so inclined. One PC (the Noble!) did that a few sessions ago.
  • Fiat them all to be Vagabond (or similar career). “Guys, all of you have just exited your careers to one of the following careers. For free. Am I not merciful?  Am I not merciful!?“
  • Do something complex and strange but more open-ended that’s a riff on how Only War handles advances.  What?
(Because the first two options are negligibly easy and probably advisable: let’s put them aside. I’m going to talk about what I cooked up in terms of the more complex approach.  What follows is probably a terrible idea, but sometimes it’s fun to just overcomplicate things.)

Only War came out a few months ago, and I’m really digging its approach to the 40K RPG system.  Instead of the weird class-based but also pseudo-level, pseduo-skill buy system that works but is awkward and initially kind of confusing, it makes things very open-ended.

Players still pick a career. Instead of coming with a list of advances open to that career (or a list of lists of advances, as with the other 40K RPGs), they come with some special abilities (not germane) and a list of aptitudes. Aptitudes are meta-abilities; what a career is good at. A Medic’s Aptitudes,  for example, are BS, Int, Per, WP, Fieldcraft, and Knowledge.  Every advance  is associated with two aptitudes: how many of those Aptitudes character has determines what the advance costs the character. Medicae is Int and Fieldcraft; a Medic who has both Int and Fieldcraft pays less for Medicae advances than, say, a Weapons Specialist who has the Fieldcraft Aptitude but not the Int Aptitude.
Characters can (generally) take whatever advances they want… but XP costs encourage them to take advances in things that the character at which they should be good and not things at which they shouldn’t be good. So… sorta like the WFRP career system, but less of a straight-jacket (“You’re a Fisherman, you are incapable of knowing Etiquette.”)
Of course, the 40K Skills and Talents aren’t quite the same as the WFRP Skills and Talents, and mapping those WFRP careers to the Aptitude list…  Fortunately, the day after the session I needed to be mentally pseudo-active while vegging. Doing that sort of thing was exactly what I needed that afternoon.  Here are the results.

At a high level: characters still roll their starting careers. They get their skills and free advance as per the core book.  Based on their career, they receive a total of six Aptitudes (some of which are automatic, some of which may be selected from a list) that determine how my XP different advances cost from that point going forward.

If you’re interested, all of my work in assembling this can be found in this spreadsheet.  This is basically the scratch paper I used to make sure stuff looked reasonably like what the career system promoted.

For starters: the Aptitudes

Aptitudes
WS T WP
BS Ag Fel
S Int
Offense Defense Finesse
Engineering Larceny Perception
Animals Leadership Social
Knowledge Magic Wilderness
General

Each of the Characteristics gets an Aptitude. Then, there are broad Offense, Defense, and Finesse Aptitudes; these should, I think, be self-explanatory.  I tweak the other OW Aptitudes to make them more WFRP-appropriate. Psyker becomes Magic, Fieldcraft gets split up quite a bit, Tech becomes Engineering, for example. General is a catch-all; everyone automatically has General.

Then, I match each Skill and Talent with a pair of Aptitude.  This was easier than I’d have expected: Characteristics were a straight-pull over while every Skill is already associated with a Characteristic (and, therefore its Aptitude), and the second Aptitude was, for the most part, obvious.  Talents were a little trickier, but worked themselves out.

Characteristics
WS WS Offense
BS BS Finesse
S S Offense
T T Defense
Ag Ag Finesse
Int Int Knowledge
WP WP Magic
Fel Fel Social
Attacks WS Offense
Wounds T General

Skills
Animal Care Int Animals Animal Training Fel Animals
Charm Fel Social Blather Fel Social
Command Fel Leadership Chanelling WP Magic
Concealment Ag Wilderness Charm Animal Fel Animals
Consume Alcohol T General Dodge Blow Ag Defense
Disguise Fel Larceny Follow Trail Int Perception
Drive S Animals Heal Int Knowledge
Evaluate Int Perception Hypnotism WP Finesse
Gamble Int Social Knowledge (*) Int Knowledge
Gossip Fel Social Lip Reading Int Perception
Haggle Fel Social Magical Sense WP Magic
Intimidate S Leadership Navigation Int Wilderness
Outdoor Survival Int Wilderness Performer (*) Fel Finesse
Perception Int Perception Pick Lock Ag Engineering
Ride Ag Animals Prepare Poison Int Knowledge
Row S General Read/Write Int Knowledge
Scale Sheer Surface S Finesse Sail Ag Wilderness
Search Int Perception Set Trap Ag Engineering
Silent Move Ag Larceny Secret Signs (*) Int Knowledge
Swim S General Shadowing Ag Larceny
Sleight of Hand Ag Larceny
Speak Language (*) Int Knowledge
Trade (*) * General
Torture Fel Finesse
Ventriloquism Fel Larceny

Talents
Acute Hearing General Perception Quick Draw Ag Finesse
Aethyric Attunement WP Magic Rapid Reload Ag BS
Alley Cat General Larceny Resist Chaos Wp Defense
Ambidextrous WS BS Resist Disease T Defense
Lore (*) Int Knowledge Resist Magic WP Defense
Armoured Casting WP Magic Resist Poison T Defense
Artistic Int Finesse Rover General Wilderness
Contortionist Ag Finesse Schemer Fel Social
Dealmaker Fel Leadership Seasoned Traveller Int Social
Disarm WS Offense Sharpshooter BS Finesse
Etiquette Fel Social Sixth Sense WP Perception
Excellent Vision General Perception Specialist Weapon Group Int Finesse
Fast Hands WS Magic Stout-Hearted WP Defense
Fearless WP Defense Street Fighting WS Finesse
Flee! Ag Defense Streetwise Fel Larceny
Frenzy S Offense Strike Mighty Blow WS Offense
Keen Senses General Perception Strike to Injure WS Offense
Lightning Parry WS Defense Strike to Stun WS Offense
Linguistics Int General Strong-Minded T WP
Magic WP Magic Sturdy S Defense
Master Gunner BS Engineering Sure Shot BS Offense
Master Orator Fel Leadership Surgery Int Knowledge
Meditation T Magic Super Numerate Int Engineering
Menacing S Leadership Swashbuckler Ag Finesse
Mighty Shot BS Offense Trapfinder Ag Perception
Mimic Fel Social Trick Riding Finesse Animal
Orientation Int Wilderness Tunnel Rat Ag Finesse
Public Speaking Fel Leadership Wrestling S Offense

A couple of notes here:

  • Characteristic advances are limited to 8, except Additional Attacks, which are limited to 2. This is, more or less, how WFRP 2E caps advances: across all of the careers, you’ll never get more than 8 advances to WS, for example. Where it’s a bit lower (Int, Fel), it seems arbitrary to cap one at 7 and another at 8.
  • I tried really hard to keep the distribution of Skills and Talents fairly even. I didn’t shoot for totally even, but I did try to get everything close.
  • Sailing and such are associated with Wilderness. That’s imperfect, but it was necessary to keep things even close. Otherwise, Wilderness and a hypothetical Sailing Aptitude would be woefully underutilized.
  • Talents like Lightning Reflexes and Hardy that are really-out-of progression Characteristic advances only make sense within the context of the Career System, and don’t make any sense here.  They’ve been moved into the Aptitude table
  • I’m not interested in running a game with fantastic races right now. Just Humans. So, I’ve ignored anything Dwarf/Elf/Halfling specific.  If any of this makes sense outside of my head, it should be negligible to apply to demihuman stuff.

Speaking of Careers & Aptitudes: this was the tricky part. I ran down the list of careers and built up the list of which Aptitudes were clearly appropriate, which were maybe appropriate, and which had no place. I literally cut-and-pasted stuff into the above spreadsheet and just ticked down Yes/No/Maybe if the Advance Scheme indicated that the Characteristics, Skills, and Talents associated with an aptitude was something that was strongly present, not present at all, or present but not strongly so, respectively.

Career Mandatory Optional
Agitator Int, Fel, Leadership, Social BS, Ag, WP, Knowledge, Larceny, Perception
Apprentice Wizard Int, WP, Magic, Social T, Ag, Fel, Knowledge, Perception
Bailiff Int, Fel, Knowledge, Leadership, Social BS, S, WP, Perception
Barber-Surgeon Ag, Int, WP, Knowledge T, Fel, Finesse
Boatman WS, Ag, Wilderness BS, S, T, Int, Social
Bodyguard WS, Offense, Defense, Finesse S, T, Ag, Perception
Bone Picker T, Larceny, Perception, Social S, Ag, WP, Fel, Animals
Bounty Hunter BS, Ag, Offense, Perception, Wilderness S, WP, Finesse, Larceny
Burgher Int, Knowledge, Perception, Social Ag, WP, Fel
Camp Follower Ag, Fel T, Int, WP, Finesse, Animals, Larceny, Social
Charcoal-Burner Perception, Wilderness S, T, Ag, Int, WP, Fel
Coachman BS, Ag, Animals, Wilderness WP, Fel, Perception, Social
Entertainer BS, Ag, Fel, Social S, WP, Finesse, Animals, Larceny, Perception
Estalian Diestro WS, Ag, Offense, Finesse S, T, Int, Defense, Engineering
Ferryman BS, S, Perception, Social T, Ag, Int, Fel, Defense
Fisherman S, Ag, Perception, Wilderness BS, T, Int, Finesse, Social
Grave Robber Ag, WP, Larceny, Perception BS, S, Finesse
Hedge Wizard WP, Fel, Magic, Perception T, Ag, Int, Animals, Social
Hunter BS, Ag, Perception, Wilderness T, Int, Engineering, Larceny
Initiate Int, WP, Fel, Knowledge BS, S, T, Leadership, Social
Jailer WS, S, T, Defense WP, Larceny, Leadership, Perception
Kislevite Kossar WS, BS, T, WP Defense, Leadership, Perception, Social, Wilderness
Marine WS, BS, S, Offense Ag, WP, Defense, Social
Mercenary WS, BS, Offense, Social S, T, Ag, WP, Defense, Finesse, Animals, Perception
Messenger Ag, Animals, Perception, Wilderness BS, T, Int, WP
Militiaman WS, Ag, Defense, Perception BS, S, T, Animals
Miner S, T, Perception, Wilderness BS, Int, WP, Animals
Noble WS, Fel, Leadership, Social BS, Ag, Int, WP, Defense, Animals, Knowledge
Norse Berserker WS, S, T, WP, Offense Leadership, Wilderness
Outlaw WS, BS, Ag, Offense, Larceny Int, Defense, Finesse, Animals, Perception, Social, Wilderness
Outrider BS, Ag, Int, Animals, Wilderness S, WP, Perception
Peasant T BS, S, Ag, WP, Animals, Social, Wilderness
Pit Fighter WS, T, Ag, WP, Offense S, Defense
Protagonist WS, S, Ag, WP, Offense Defense, Social
Rat Catcher Ag, WP, Animals, Larceny, Perception BS, T, Engineering
Roadwarden WS, BS, Ag, Animals, Wilderness S, Int, WP, Perception, Social
Rogue Ag, Fel, Perception, Social BS, Int, WP, Larceny, Leadership
Scribe Ag, Int, WP, Knowledge Fel, Engineering
Seaman WS, S, Ag, Offense, Wilderness BS, Defense, Perception
Servant Ag, WP, Perception, Social S, T, Int, Fel, Defense, Animals
Smuggler Ag, Int, Fel, Larceny BS, Animals, Perception, Social, Wilderness
Soldier WS, BS, Ag, Offense WP, Defense, Animals, Perception, Social
Squire WS, Offense, Knowledge, Leadership BS, S, T, Ag, Fel, Defense, Animals, Social
Student Ag, Int, Fel, Knowledge Engineering, Perception, Social
Thief Ag, Fel, Larceny, Perception BS, Int, Finesse, Engineering, Social
Thug WS, Offense, Larceny, Social S, T, Ag, WP, Fel, Defense
Toll Keeper WS, T, Perception, Wilderness BS, S, Ag, WP, Social
Tomb Robber WS, Ag, Int, WP, Engineering, Perception Fel, Knowledge, Larceny
Tradesman Ag, WP S, T, Int, Fel, Animals, Engineering, Perception, Social
Vagabond BS, Ag, Larceny, Wilderness Int, Fel, Perception, Social
Valet Ag, Int, Fel, Knowledge, Social WP, Perception
Watchman WS, Int, Defense, Perception BS, S, Ag, WP, Fel
Woodsman WS, S, WP, Wilderness T, Ag, Perception
Zealot WS, T, WP, Knowledge, Leadership S, Fel, Social

Remember, you get a total of six aptitudes. You get what’s in the Mandatory list automatically, and can then choose from the Optional list until you’ve got your six.

Now, actually pricing advances is tough. In WFRP, everything is basically 100 XP / advance. In the 40K RPGs, they’re all over the place: Characteristics (which are generally more broadly useful) cost more than Skills and Talents. The more advances you take in a Characteristic or Skill, the more expensive it is.

This makes quite a bit of sense, but dang: I like the simplicity of a common cost.  It does allow a character to rocket up to +40% WS with their first 800 XP, though. Furthermore, there’s probably an argument to be made that Additional Attacks should cost more or be spaced out more as well.  So, flat costs are problematic… but after a point, I think you just have to let go.

My inclination runs strongly towards doing 100/200/300 XP for advances that share 2/1/0 Aptitudes with the character.  This is substantially less than what things cost in Only War, but is about what things cost in WFRP 2E, as I’ve got Careers & Aptitudes mapped.

Near-term, I’ll probably collapse all of this into a Google doc (minus thought-process stuff), which will vastly help its readability.

So: that was a big f’ing chunk of something.  I’m curious as to what other people think.  I both have and haven’t put a lot of thought into this. In terms of complexity, it looks like it might be needlessly complex, but I expect that after character creation, it fades into the background.  I’m not entirely sure if I’m going to adopt it in my game; the other two options are certainly simpler, if less interesting.

Very interested in any and all thoughts and opinions.  Let me know what you think.

WFRP 2E Winds of Magic Table(s)

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Winds of Magic

Someone on the WFRP 2E Refugees group asked about a Winds of Magic table. Since nobody offered up one, and someone had mentioned Storm of Magic, I crapped one together.

It’s rough (since I literally threw it together in a few minutes); the Lores are from WHFB, not WFRP, and it’s never seen use at the table… but it’s a start. Furthermore, several of these lores are not, I think, actually represented in WFRP.  That’s cool, though: a appropriate situations’ll present themselves for their use or they won’t.

Roll d10 to determine what Wind is in ascendancy.

Roll Lores
1 Doldrums
2 Ghyran Life Nurgle, Skaven Dark
3 Azyr Heavens Chaos, Orc & Goblin, High
4 Ulgu Shadow Beastman, Slaanesh Dark
5 Purple Death Necromancy High
6 Aqshy Fire Orc & Goblin, Skaven Dark
7 Ghur Beasts Beastman, Ogre High
8 Hysh Light Necromancy, Ogre Dark
9 Chamon Metal Necromancy, Tzeentch High
0 Storm (All Lores)

Rune magic, rituals and such should probably not be affected. Petty Magic either isn’t significant enough to be affected, or should be affected regardless of the roll.

Roll d10 to determine the strength of the ascendant Wind.  All other Winds and lores work normally.  There’s probably a lot of room for refinement here, mind you.

Roll Strength
1 Becalmed – Cast as if Mag = Mag-1 (min 1)
2-5 Normal
6-8 Strong – Roll 1 extra casting die, drop 1 casting die
9 Dangerous – Must cast at full Mag
0 Tempestuous – Must cast at full Mag+1

Thoughts?  I’m not likely to use it any time soon: stuff’s getting Weird in my game, but it’s not going to run weird in this particularly direction.

Free RPG Day Hexcrawl Entries

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About a month ago, James Raggi posted about the now-underway LotFP Free RPG Day Kickstarter.  The module (“Better than Any Man”) is a hexcrawl around Karlstadt during the Thirty Years War, and he put out a call for “‘random’ and placed wilderness encounters that aren’t connected to the main ideas of the adventure but that support the atmosphere.”

Since I’m theoretically running a game that takes place in Germany during the Thirty Years War, I’ve got a notebook full of Stuff To Do… so I pinged him and offered to throw together a few.

The Kickstarter’s closed out (successfully! yay!), and it looks like they’re not getting used (and, to be honest, I didn’t really expect them to), so I figured I’d post ’em here.  Silly to let content go to waste when I’ve got a blog that’s starved for attention.

Foul Fruit

A village sits near the edge of a field. It’s unnervingly quiet: no voices are heard, no sound of livestock, no smoke rising form chimneys.  In the field, certainly a place for local celebrations and fairs years ago, stands large tree.  Dozens of nude corpses are hanged from it, like foul fruit.

The village is thoroughly looted. All of the bodies are adult and male, but there are no other people to be found.  Similarly, all of the livestock is missing.

(Mostly this is just an excuse to reference Callot’s Les Grandes Misères de la guerre: #11 – The Hanging which is, to me, one of the most evocative pieces about the period.)

The Patrol

A few miles away, there’s a group riders in the colors of [Karlstadt], armed dangerously.  They’ve noticed you and are galloping your way, readying their weapons!

These riders are looking for trouble: they’re searching for scouts from the Swedish army to capture or kill. They’ll likely assume that’s what the party is.  If they’re not traitorous, heretical troops, what are they doing wandering the German countryside when they should be in Karlstadt, preparing to fight off the same.

(I’m saying [Karlstadt] because I’ve forgotten who’s supposed to be in control of it.  Someone Hapsburg, I expect, but Tilly? Wallenstein?)

Atra Mors

A lone farmhouse quietly sits on the edge of a ragged, poorly tended field. No smoke rises from the chimney, but there are faint sounds of movement coming from within.  

The house is wreathed in a strong, foul odor which. The sounds are from rats, feasting on a family’s worth of corpses arrayed throughout the house.  The corpses are but a few days old: an ill-advised examination of the bodies will reveal large, tumescent buboes in the armpits and groins of the bodies.   The Plague!

(I have no idea if you think it’s a good idea for the PCs to catch the plague. I’m assuming not. Besides, it’s been my experience that PCs run, fast and hard and immediately, from anything that looks like it might be the plague… so it doesn’t really matter if I want them to be able to catch it or not.)

Looking for Pic-a-nic Baskets

While camping for the night, a large snuffling shape wobbles and shuffles in from the darkness: a mangy, gaunt bear begins pawing at one of your packs!

People aren’t the only things starving in the Palatinate. This animal is hungry enough to brave a group of people to rummage for anything to eat.  It will certainly attack anyone who attempts to stop it from tearing through packs and eating anything it smells and, depending on how much food it’s able to rummage out of those packs, it might attack the party anyway.

(Sorry; I’ve got to throw this one out here. This encounter killed nearly half of the party in my game; nothing fancy, just bears and death. :) )

“The war will feed itself.”

Screams and cries can be heard coming from a village: soldiers in Swedish colors are butchering its residents.  They’re too preoccupied in visiting misery upon their victims to notice you… yet.

These are scouts for the Swedish army, riding ahead of the main force.  They’re taking food because they’re hungry, shelter because they plan to camp here for the evening, and lives because of the horror of Magdeburg.  They’ll be wary of any interlopers, but will quickly become friendly to the party if they can prove themselves to be Protestant.  They will attack if they believe the party to be Catholic, however, fighting with an unusual ferocity and offering no quarter… just “Magdeburg Justice.”

It was a fun exercise to try to take what’s in the notebook (which tends to not be much more than Plague Village or Bear-baiting gone horribly wrong) and expand it out into more detail.

Also, regardless of not contributing in terms of words, I’m still very much excited about the campaign.  I’m in for more print copies than is probably advisable, but even at the lowest it was a great freaking deal and should turn up a lot of great stuff.