Of Dice and Men

The throwing of these dice is discouraged.

That I am not the first one to abuse such an awful pun for a gaming-related article only furthers my theory that the pun is the worst of literary devices. Low hanging fruit and all that. Moving on.

I've been thinking a lot about dice recently. The vast majority of people in this hobby play the world's premiere fantasy RPG or some analog of it, and that means linear rolls. Now, I don't dislike linear rolls, but I do think they make play experience more finicky  This is partially their implementation. A very large number of games, possibly the majority, do not have rules for gradients of success; you either pass or fail. I cannot count the number of times that I have watched a party fail miserably due to the dice. Conversely, there have been just as many overwhelming successes. I will forever remember the final encounter of my last Pathfinder campaign, where the first player to act rolled two natural 20s and hit for something like 140 damage right out of the gate.

It's when the opposite happens that you feel the tendency to fudge rolls or allow re-rolls. That's even worse! But nobody wants the campaign to fall apart just because you rolled a failure at some critical (or trivial) moment. At the same time, I am strong proponent of the "Let it Ride" rule from Burning Wheel. The results are a binding and, fail or succeed, you better make the consequences interesting.

I suppose that's why I've been itching to play other games that use the alternative: a dice pool. This, in my opinion, is much preferable simply because these games almost always have rules for gradients of success, which makes it much harder to get fucked by the dice. The good news is I have two Burning Wheel campaigns slated to begin soon.

2nd Edition Reprints

You've probably heard that Wizards of the Coast has announced they will be reprinting the core 2nd edition books, plus some adventure modules. I will not be buying them, but I think having any of the (current) four editions available is a net positive. The one thing I think they did wrong is release them as collector's additions instead of books meant for gaming.

This decision has me questioning their end game. I don't think Wizards actually want to maintain active support of all of these editions. That these reprints are being released while 5e is being assembled makes me wonder if Wizards is looking to gauge which previous edition they should emulate most. I know this is a cynical view, but I sincerely doubt they released these reprints because fans want them. If nothing else, I'm willing to bet they were reaction to the OSR and Pathfinder. After 5e drops, whenever that is, what's the likelihood that Wizards will release Collector's reprints of 4e?

FTP Alert: Dungeonslayers

I just discovered this via The Iron Tavern and I have to say, it looks pretty awesome. I haven't had the chance to look at the rules yet, but, from the review, the game is all about speedy resolution so you can keep things moving (you only use a d20!).

The best part? It's completely free. I'll definitely be adding this to my ever-expanding collection of games. Even if I never play it, I'm sure that some of the 170 page rulebook (only 10 of which are actual rules) will be useful as source material.

This game has actually been around for a few years and was released under the creative commons license. That means you can take the work of German designer Christian Kennig and mold it to suit your needs. Several variants already exist, including options for modern day zombie-killing and Mutant Future weirdness, albeit in German. I'm sure as this product gains steam over here, we'll see those options, and many more, make their way into translation.Check it out here.

Mouse Guard: First Impressions

This weekend was a lot of firsts. It was the first time my old group had met in about two months. It was the first time I ran an adventure on the fly in. . .a long time. Most importantly, it was the first time I ever played Mouse Guard.

I was a little bit uncertain as to how this game would go over, honestly. To start, this game is painfully adorable. If the visual of a determined group of mice braving a rain storm as they cross a lake the size of a puddle in a leafboat is too cute for your tastes, I can understand. But I would highly recommend you leave your doubts at the door and soldier on.

We played two sessions. The first was the sample mission, "Find the Missing Grain Peddler." For these more intense, story driven games I always find it best to start using pre-made characters. The downside of this, in my experience, is that while players will do their best to accommodate the personality they have been handed, they are never particularly invested, especially if there is no plan to continue the story after the first sessions.

Afterwards, we dove right into character creation. This section is so incredibly straight forward and easy to do on the fly that you can, as a group, open right to this section and begin the process having never read it prior. An hour after doing so, we had our patrol ready to go.

I hadn't originally planned to run our first session, but I was feeling good about how character creation went and decided to run with it. Two hours later, we were done our first mission. One of things that make this game so much fun is how big the world is in comparison to you. Everything is a challenge when you're about three inches tall. We hit a few snags trying to talk about distances, but once we decided to not worry about the actual scale of what was happening, things moved very quickly.

I am very pleased with the system, and am currently trying to arrange for us to get on a weekly schedule. For anyone interested in The Burning Wheel, I highly recommend starting here just to get the hang of things.

Joining the Guard

I picked this up today. Now I just need to convince my players that pretending to be mice is just as cool as pretending to be Orcs, Elves, and Dwarves.

Help! I Need Somebody!

Teamwork is one of those things that I ensure is vital to any party hoping to survive my campaign. One of the most common ways to lend a hand is on a skill check, but few systems have explicit rules on how to go about multiple characters contributing to a task. I've developed a simple system for such a situation. One character acts as the primary participant, while everyone else is support. The sole character in the primary role makes their check a normally, rolling a 1d20 (or whichever die is appropriate). Anyone in a support roll does the same, but their result modifies the overall check as follows:

1:     -2 to check
5:    +1 to check
10:  +2 to check
15:  +3 to check
20:  +4 to check

DCC RPG Alternate Cover

I posted the sketch a while ago, but Joseph Goodman revealed the color version this week. Now I just need to convince myself I need a third copy of this rulebook. Or maybe I just need to convince my girlfriend that this would make a great Christmas present.

Creeping Miasma

Often disguising themselves as clouds of fog, Creeping Miasma's are the products of cult activity or evil spirits who remain on the material plain to feast on the flesh of the living. Anyone who enters the cloud immediately feels a burning sensation throughout their entire body. For each round a character spends in the cloud they suffer 1d6 points of damage.

Init +7; Atk SP (see above); AC 17; HD 10d8; HP 45; MV 30', Fly 30'; Act SP (see below); SV Fort +3, Ref +7, Will +3; AL C

Trying to escape a Creeping Miasma is incredibly difficult. Should its prey attempt to run, it takes the form of a massive python. While in this form, use these stats:

Init +7; Atk Bite +7 (1d8 + Poison); AC 17; HD 10d8; HP 45; MV 60'; Act 1d20; SV Fort +3, Ref +7, Will +3; AL C

Poison: This venom rots the victim's flesh from the inside out. A player bit by the snake form must succeed on a DC 15 Fort save or suffer 1d6 points of dame per round for a number of rounds equal to their margin of failure. 

Should its prey, in a fit of foolish bravery, choose to stand and fight, the Creeping Miasma takes the form of a hideous, razor-toothed maw surrounded by six tentacles. While in this form, use the stats below:

Init +7; Atk Tentacle +7 (1d6); AC 17; HD 10d8; HP 45; MV 30'; Act 6d20; Any creature struck by one of the tentacles Is automatically grappled and will be thrust into its hideous mouth on the following turn unless they succeed at a DC 15 Reflex save; those who fail automatically suffer 1d6 points of damage from its bite attack; SV Fort +3, Ref +7, Will +3; AL C

All forms reduce any damage taken by half from non-magical sources.

Hiatus

Normal updates will resume next week.

Shake, Rattle, and Roll

It doesn't matter how many dice I own, a new set is always welcome. Yesterday, my players surprised me with a new set of Gamescience Precision dice. They have been sanded down, inked, and are ready to begin their PC-slaying career starting tomorrow night.