Cheers, Gary book at Gen Con

July 26th, 2011

Cheers, Gary

The Gygax Memorial Fund asked me to edit a book based on Gary Gygax’s enworld QA thread, which I harvested and put online.

Just the Gary Gygax-written portion of that thread is huge – it could be published as a ten-volume set. I cut it down to what I think are the most interesting questions, answers, and anecdotes, and it’s still over 300 pages.

The book will be available at Gencon, at the Old School Renaissance Group booth (#1541). Get this: Gail Gygax and I will be at the booth, autographing copies of the book. Think about what this might mean to you. Your very own autograph from that blogofholding guy!!! Plus Gail Gygax. Past performance is no indication of success, but other things I have autographed (like checks) have gone up in value as much as $1000.

The other hilarious thing about this project, besides the fact that I’ll be autographing something, is that I’ll be volunteering at the OSR booth. I like OD&D, but my group plays fourth edition. Come on by the booth and say hi. You’ll know me because I’ll be the only guy at the OSR booth talking about his dragonborn ardent.

Here’s a sneak preview of the book: my introduction.
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suggestions for 5e: lose shift and opportunity attack

July 25th, 2011

I played 4e with a 3rd edition player the other day and she said, “I thought 4e combat was supposed to be simpler.”

It’s true that, while 4e did some great streamlining, it added a bunch of new complications. Here are my suggestions for simplifying Fifth Edition combat:

  • Get rid of the Marked condition and similar defender abilities.
  • Get rid of opportunity attacks – or, more precisely, make opportunity attacks a class feature belonging to fighters and similar defender types. (Taking a general rule and making it a class feature is a great way to hide complexity – the way 4e First Strike, a rogue feature, replaces 3e’s rule that everyone is flat-footed until their first combat turn.)
  • Take away Shifts. All they are is a way to avoid opportunity attacks anyway.

Now people can move around with impunity in combat, except around close-combat-trained defenders/soldiers, who are sticky. And instead of adding rules, we’ve cut out a giant block of rules with a scalpel.

I’d use these as 4e house rules except that so many exceptions-based rules key off every rules element. Exceptions-based rule design is great, but it does mean that house-ruling is always slightly more involved than you’d like.

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magic sword +1, +3 vs. hijinks

July 22nd, 2011


“Our stage swords have neither edge nor point, for they are only intended for show; the wounds they make disappear suddenly when the curtain falls, without the aid of the surgeon with his instruments and lint.”

That’s a description of the stage swords used by an 18th century acting troupe in Theophile Gautier’s Captain Fracasse. But D&Dize it up and you have a pretty cool magic weapon.

Imagine a magic sword called, say, the Stage Sword. An hour after you are wounded by the Stage Sword, you recover all HP you lost from the sword. If you were killed by the sword, you actually come back to life.

PCs given such a sword could get up to all sorts of tricks. Many a devious plan can be made out of being able to convincingly play dead, although as we know from Romeo and Juliet, such schemes generally go horribly wrong. So, no different from the usual PC plan.

I actually used this sword in a theater-based adventure starring ratlings. The local theater company used such a sword in their spectacular, crowd-pleasing tragedies, ACTUALLY BEHEADING ACTORS ONSTAGE in a way that could be repeated night after night.

A devious nobleman replaced the stage sword with a real sword. Half the PCs figured this out and the other half didn’t, leading to Hijinx, in which PCs tried to disable each other, impersonated actors, and shouted “FIRE!” in a crowded theater.

Also, several PCs were backstage, stealing the actors’ shirts. That wasn’t related to the trick sword. It’s just the sort of thing that happens when ratlings are involved.

Here’s another cool magic weapon from Captain Fracasse:

It was of Spanish make, and bore upon its sharp, pointed blade, a sinister inscription in that language, to this effect – “When this viper bites you, make sure That you must die – for there is no cure.” No one could imagine how it had come there…

If you wanted to personalize a magical dagger, you could do worse than have this “sinister inscription” on the blade. You’d probably want to give the dagger a power to match: it does extra poison damage, or it imparts a disease effect on a successful hit.

In 4e, I’d make the dagger a rare item, with a handful of special abilities, because such a cool blade deserves to take center stage.

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a flaws system for 4e

July 20th, 2011

Rory did a great job listing the problems with many flaw-based systems: they encourage min/maxing and don’t necessarily add a lot of fun. I decided to see if I could come up with a flaw system that would increase table fun.

Rule 1: Flaws shouldn’t make your character be useless in combat. If they have any combat effects at all, they should increase randomness and/or wackiness.

Rule 2: Flaws should support archetypes. Feats and other character abilities are meant to build larger-than-life heroes. When possible, flaws should do this too. They should be reminiscent of existing play styles and/or literary heroes.

Here are my flaw rules:

If you decide to take an attribute at a value of 8 (a dump stat), you must choose a flaw in that stat. If your lowest attribute is 10, you don’t need to take a flaw. (Players who take an 8 are often aware of their dump stat and often play it for laughs anyway.)

You get rid of your flaw if you ever raise your stat to 10 (so, by epic level at the latest).

STRENGTH FLAWS
Civilian: The first time you make a melee attack in any encounter, your spastic unpredictability gives you combat advantage. However, any time you miss with a melee attack, your opponent may choose to automatically disarm you as a free action.
Feeble: You can’t carry heavy items (or wear heavy armor, or your own share of the supplies). Even if your group doesn’t track encumbrance, you should insist that your burden feels so very heavy.
Puny: You have the same weapon restrictions as a halfling. A halfling with this flaw must use all weapons two-handed.
Can’t swim: If you can’t reach the bottom of the water with a toe, you’ll start to drown. You are probably also afraid of water.
Can’t climb: Someone will have to rig up a rope and pulley system to get you up cliffs. You are probably also afraid of heights.

CONSTITUTION FLAWS (not that anyone ever takes 8 Con, since it is used for HP)
Medicine dependent: You require a daily dose of drugs and potions to avoid being Weakened. You occasionally cough blood into a handkerchief.
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When Theory Meets Practice – Character Flaws

July 19th, 2011

There are a lot of interesting ideas for running D&D or making tweaks to the rules that sound really cool when you first think of them but that sadly don’t work out in actual play. I will explore many such ideas in this series: going over what makes the ideas attractive in the first place, explaining why they don’t work, and suggesting compromise solutions.

Character Flaws: In most rpgs that offer a system for flaws, the characters can take one or more flaws in exchange for some kind of benefit. So maybe my character is blind but gets an extra feat to compensate for their blindness.

Teen heartthrob Peter Dinklage

The Attraction: Flaws can be fun roleplaying opportunities and give more depth to a character. It can be fun to play a one armed fighter sometimes or a character whose pride is so strong they will NEVER retreat from combat.

Furthermore, many epic heroes from film and literature have notable disadvantages that can be fun to mirror. Conan the Barbarian is extremely prideful and has an impulsive nature that gets him into a lot of trouble. Horatio Hornblower (that noble fantasy hero) has a strict code of honor. Tyrion Lannister is an ugly dwarf reviled by those who first meet him or have heard of his reputation (of course, in the HBO series he is played by teen heartthrob Peter Dinklage).

The Hard Truth: There are a lot of potential problems with flaws: Read the rest of this entry »

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everlasting provisions, leveled

July 18th, 2011

My old houserules for leveling magic items mean that every piece of magical treasure has the potential to gain power in ways that the players can’t predict. Furthermore, WOTC recently invented the concept of the “rare magic item,” but haven’t given us lots of examples.

While some items may get mechanically better (for instance, a +1 sword becomes a +2 sword), it’s more challenging to improve items that don’t have numeric bonuses. I thought I’d go through the Wondrous Items in the 4e Player’s Handbook and give examples of how each could gain powers that reflect their history.

Everlasting Provisions

This item is provided solely to give PCs a rationale for ignoring food logistics (which they do anyway). Still, even a magic picnic can have a personality of its own.

1. The Guildmaster’s Everlasting Provisions of Coercion
Among the daily items in these Everlasting Provisions is a bottle of fine wine. When the food is created, the user can cause the bottle to either be normal wine, a wine that infects its drinker with Cackle Fever, or a wine that provides a Cackle Fever antidote. The difference between these wines may not be determined by nonmagical means.

The Guildmaster used the diseased wine, and the promise of an antidote, to persuade many people to do her favors who might not otherwise have done so.

2. Chef Aron’s Everlasting Provisions of Inconsistent Quality
Besides the normal, filling meals, every day’s provisions come with beautiful pastries. Each day, the pastries have different effects on all consumers (roll d6):
1: Illness. After an hour, the eaters become sick. Unless they make a DC 17 Endurance check, they lose a healing surge and are Weakened for an hour. On a failure, the check and consequences are repeated every hour until they either succeed on the Endurance check or take an extended rest.
2: Addiction. The consumer can’t stop thinking about the desserts. The next day, the consumer will be Weakened until they eat one of the pastries again or take an extended rest.
3: Normal. The pastries are delicious.
4: Extra healing. The first healing surge spent before the end of the day heals additional hit points equal to the consumer’s Healing Surge.
5: Extra energy. If the consumer has less than two Action Points, they gain an Action Point.
6: Glittering Prizecake of Wonder. Each consumer finds a magical trinket baked into their pastry: it may be equipped into an empty ring, neck, or head slot. While equipped, all skills gain a +2 item bonus. The trinket disappears at the next extended rest.

Chef Aron had no natural gift for cooking, but after doing a favor for a fey lord his banquets would occasionally lead to surprising results.

3. Jeks’ Everlasting Provisions of Shared Understanding
Until the next extended rest, everyone who shares the glasses of whiskey that accompany this meal gets +5 bonuses to Diplomacy and Bluff and -5 penalties to Insight.

Behold the magical tablecloth of Jeks, a diplomat whose conferences usually led to quick agreements, although not always ones of great wisdom.

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wait, there are scarecrows that don’t come to life?

July 15th, 2011


“Alas!” answered Agostino mournfully, “no other career is open to me, and I am more to be pitied than you suppose. I am the only one left of a band formerly as complete as yours; the executioner has deprived me of my brave comrades one by one, and now I am obliged to carry on my operations entirely alone – dressing up my scarecrows, as your friend calls them, and assuming different voices to make believe that I am supported by a numerous company. Ah! mine is a sad fate; and then my road is such a poor one – so few travellers come this way.”

–Captain Fracasse, Theophile Gautier

This is a great little tragicomic encounter. PCs are ambushed on a dark road. They are surrounded by shadowy figures, demanding the PCs’ money or their lives. (Several of the bandits talk; the DM should use a variety of funny voices.)

When the PCs inevitably attack, they will be cutting down inanimate scarecrows which are armed with wooden swords.

The only real bandits are Agostino and his ward, a half-wild and thuggish little girl. (In Captain Fracasse, Agostino says he wants money to “buy a decent cloak for poor Chiquita besides; she needs it badly enough, poor thing!”)

If the PCs take pity on the bandits and give them money, Chiquita will be grateful, in her primal way.

She fixed her sparkling eyes on Isabelle, and said in a low, earnest voice, “Oh! you are very, very good, and I will never, never kill you.” Then she ran swiftly back to the pine grove.

If the PCs befriend the bandits, they’ll be getting a valuable ally. The next time the PCs are in real trouble (captured, for instance), an eerie and bloodthirsty little girl may come to their rescue.

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a literal points of light campaign

July 13th, 2011

Hundreds of years ago, the weak red sun finally flickered out. Every remaining settlement maintains its own little sun-star, which provides daylight to an area a few miles in diameter.

Every year, a ritual must be performed to renew each town’s sun-star. The ritual uses up gold. Adventurers are sent into abandoned, dark, horrifying cities and ancient dungeons, and told, “Return with life-giving gold!”.

If adventurers become rich enough, they can generate a new sun-star and start their own Point of Light settlement.

In such a world, normal plants and animals are at a premium, while metal can be foraged from the dead cities, so metal armor might be cheaper than leather. That makes this cold world the reverse of the Dark Sun setting.

The few orchards would be carefully tended, and no one would waste valuable wood on torches. Perhaps everyone knows a ritual that causes a gold coin to burn like a torch.

In the vast cold darks, the monsters are touched with shadow or aberration. The forests are hostile, and the shadows wait for the sun-stars to die.

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character sheet on a business card

July 12th, 2011

One of the obstacles to pick-up D&D is that you probably don’t have your character sheet with you. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could fit it in your wallet, along with your Monster Manual?

Business card front

(high-quality printable version)

Business card back

(high-quality printable version)

Character sheet sizes have varied greatly, from the austerity of the one-page Basic character (with lots of whitespace) to the excesses of the four-page 3rd edition sheets. In fourth edition, the character sheet has shrunk from the original front-and-back version to the delightful one-page Essentials sheet, which now has 12 lines for “Powers and Feats”, enough for any character as long as they’re level 1.

Character Sheet on a Business Card: My 2 x 3.5-inch character sheet has pretty much everything the official D&D one has, but it’s dollhouse-sized. In order to use it, you might have to write in a fine, spidery script, and possibly change your character name from “Robert the Warhorn, Eater of Worlds” to “Bob W. Eater”, but that’s a small price to pay for the ability to accidentally hand your 12th-level warlock to visiting businessmen.

Skills and Attributes: I laid out the business card so that you write your skill bonuses in the margins. Also, you’ll underline your trained skills, which saves a couple dozen checkboxes.

Powers and Feats: You don’t have room to write your powers, but that’s not really unusual for a 4e character sheet. You should be using power cards: they also fit in your wallet. Also notice that this character sheet has room for 15 feats – three more than the Essentials sheet!

Notes and Character Portrait: It’s not a character sheet if there’s nowhere to draw a portrait. In the combined Notes/Portrait section, you won’t have much room for both, but the player who is doodling elaborate blood spatters on her orc barbarian is not the party note-taker anyway.

The business card format: The nice thing about business cards is that they’re super cheap. You can print up, like, 500 business cards for like $10!

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1863 precursor to the Red Box

July 8th, 2011


The roof, of dark red tiles, was disfigured by many large, leprous-looking, yellow patches, while in some places the decayed rafters had given way…

The apartments on the ground floor contained nothing but a few bundles of straw, a heap of corn-cobs, and some antiquated gardening implements.

Captain Fracasse, an episodic 1863 adventure novel, has given me more inspiration for D&D adventures than any book since African Civilizations. And it started on page 1, with a description of a ruined chateau.

I’m reminded of the sample dungeon in my 1983 Red Box DM’s book, which had comparable readaloud text:

As you approach, you see that the walls are jagged and full of small holes, and a few large stone blocks have tumbled to the earth, lying around the ruins. A gateway in the center of the front wall stands empty, and the massive outer doors now lay rotting nearby…

The room is 30’x30′, with doorways in the north and east walls; the doors are missing. The room is filled with boxes and crates of many shapes and sizes, and looks like a storage area.

Furthermore, I’m certain that the “leprous-looking yellow patches” in Captain Fracasse are patches of Yellow Mold, which also featured in the Red Box dungeon.

My guess is that Fracasse‘s bundle of straw hides a valuable bracelet, and the corncobs mark the lair of some monster (perhaps a cabal of hideous pig-men?) The gardening implements are just gardening implements.

That’s page 1 out of the way! Later on in the book, there will be fencing, fighting, giants*, true love… you name it. I’ll post more later.

*In Captain Fracasse, unlike in The Princess Bride, the giants are just guys on stilts.

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