|
Do you need a system, exactly? Because I would just pluck powers from Mutant Future (Gamma World) and hand them out kind-of-but-not-really at random.
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2013 01:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 03:29 |
|
|
Ravendas posted:I like it. I'd start everyone off at 2nd level to pad them out a little bit, and remind the mage that his main job isn't flinging two Magic Missiles then falling asleep, it's more of using his NWP's to help figure things out, and use his magic to do things that no one else can. We'd start at 3rd level for our Planescape game. First level characters have no chance in Planescape. There was a sourcebook (maybe one of the DM advice ones, or maybe it was in Dragon in the 90s) that recommended starting at 3rd or 5th level for various reasons, and a few ways to do it. I'm not thinking of Dark Sun where you default to starting at 3rd level with differently rolled stats, this was general advice on why you'd want to start at 3rd level, why you'd want 5th, and how to set up characters that weren't just "roll a level 1 character and level up 4 times". Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Oct 24, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2013 03:39
|
|
|
Lightning Lord posted:ACKS has also added new racial classes, so instead of just being an Elf or Dwarf you can be an Elven Spellsword, Elven Nightblade, Dwarven Vaultguard, Dwarven Craftpriest, etc. It's a pretty cool compromise between Race as Class and later style of Race and Class being distinct. The ACKS Companion further adds a bunch of new racial classes (including the Dwarven Engineer, Elven Ranger, and the Gnomish Trickster) as well as a bunch of other new classes created with the game's class creation rules, which are handily provided in the book. It also has starting packages for all of the game's classes, including the ones from the core, which make character creation really quick. You basically roll 3d6 on a table depending on your character class, and the game gives you a package of Proficiencies, equipment and spells (if you're a spell-casting class) to begin with. The latter is definitely my favorite part of the Companion: when I first ran ACKS I felt that the addition of Proficiencies took away from one of the things I loved about old-school games, i.e. the ease and quickness of character creation, because that one simple addition to character creation meant that players had to go through a laundry list of not-feats and not-skills to create a character. If I ever run ACKS again I'm definitely having my players roll for a template at character creation so we can get into the game more quickly.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2013 09:26
|
|
|
Ratpick posted:The latter is definitely my favorite part of the Companion: when I first ran ACKS I felt that the addition of Proficiencies took away from one of the things I loved about old-school games, i.e. the ease and quickness of character creation, because that one simple addition to character creation meant that players had to go through a laundry list of not-feats and not-skills to create a character. If I ever run ACKS again I'm definitely having my players roll for a template at character creation so we can get into the game more quickly. I've pretty much decided to just ignore Proficiencies whenever I run ACKS from now on. I like pretty much everything else about it, and it handles what are basically Feats better than most books, but they still feel like too adding complexity for a net loss in balance. I'm actually not a big fan of all the additional classes, either (although I love the guidelines for creating new classes). You start to run into the whole 'my character concept is my mechanics' problem. I love weird one-off classes, but I feel like they're more fun designed in reaction to an idea by the players, instead of just being a list that the player reads down and picks one from.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2013 18:13
|
|
|
If you don't mind me asking, what is ACKS? I tried to google the term and I don't believe I found the game you're discussing.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2013 19:01
|
|
|
Ravendas posted:Compared to 4e, 2e low level characters are much weaker, able to die in a blow or two, so a lot more planning, and perhaps running or diplomacy, are in order. Plus, DMs are encouraged to make the world a bit more realistic, in that not everything that is encountered is meant to be defeated. Just because it exists doesn't mean it's of an even level with the characters and a balanced fight. The best thing about 2e is that pretty much every core class is viable. Hell, Bards (my fvorite class) are fantastic in 2e because they're not the unkillable shitkicker prestige class from 1e, and they're not the complete garbage shitlords from 3.x. They're a jack of all trades type that's pretty good at a lot of things, but not amazing at any of them. Fun fact: 2e Bards were one of the main inspirations for the Red Mage class in the original Final Fantasy. Covok posted:If you don't mind me asking, what is ACKS? I tried to google the term and I don't believe I found the game you're discussing. Adventurer, Conqueror, King System
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2013 19:05
|
|
|
Covok posted:If you don't mind me asking, what is ACKS? I tried to google the term and I don't believe I found the game you're discussing. e;f,b
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2013 19:06
|
|
|
Silhouette posted:Fun fact: 2e Bards were one of the main inspirations for the Red Mage class in the original Final Fantasy.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2013 19:16
|
|
|
I always assumed Final Fantasy was based on AD&D, but I know RC was a pretty big influence in Japanese fantasy stuff like Record of Lodoss War. I wonder if there's a source on what inspired the original Final Fantasy. It feels very D&D to me, at least, so I'm kind of assuming there's something going on there.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2013 19:27
|
|
|
Evil Sagan posted:I always assumed Final Fantasy was based on AD&D, but I know RC was a pretty big influence in Japanese fantasy stuff like Record of Lodoss War. I wonder if there's a source on what inspired the original Final Fantasy. It feels very D&D to me, at least, so I'm kind of assuming there's something going on there. Final Fantasy is very clearly D&D: The JRPG. The very first release even had Vancian spell-casting, where your Mages would have a certain number of uses of a spell until they next rested, the game had Bahamut as a basically benevolent leader of dragons (who sent you on an epic fetchquest for a rat's tail), the classes are pretty much taken straight from D&D (with the Red Mage as the not-Bard and the Black Belt as the not-Monk for good measure) and the Fighter even does the BECMI thing of eventually learning white magic because they obviously became a Paladin (albeit under a different name). It's even less subtle with some of the monsters. The game has mind flayers, sahuagin, beholders and ankhegs just to name a few. For the longest time I've actually wanted to run a BECMI game with the trappings of JRPGs, and the fact that the original JRPGs stole so liberally from D&D would make it so much easier.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2013 19:43
|
|
|
OtspIII posted:Huge effortpost about dungeon mapping I have some kinda-related questions for anyone in the thread who can answer. 1. I'm thinking about doing a planetary adventure style game, since Mutant Future makes it easy to blend sci-fi into Basic. The problem I keep coming back to is that the characters would by necessity be unique individuals crash-landed on an alien planet, and Basic assumes low-level characters will die and be replaced by jumped-up hirelings or whatnot. Can anyone recommend a plausible way around it? 2. Has anyone tried eliminating spellcasting from Basic? I've never played Gamma World, so I have no idea if any version of it manages to wrest a balanced play experience from relying on items and mutant powers for healing and other things for which you usually rely on spells.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2013 22:35
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:1. I'm thinking about doing a planetary adventure style game, since Mutant Future makes it easy to blend sci-fi into Basic. The problem I keep coming back to is that the characters would by necessity be unique individuals crash-landed on an alien planet, and Basic assumes low-level characters will die and be replaced by jumped-up hirelings or whatnot. Can anyone recommend a plausible way around it? Basic advise, but start the characters at higher levels? Do something like reskin extremely low level monsters so that they become more interesting? My question is if you're eliminating spellcasting, why aren't you just using Mutant Future straight up? It's basically Labyrinth Lord retooled as Gamma World. Lightning Lord fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Oct 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2013 22:39
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:1. I'm thinking about doing a planetary adventure style game, since Mutant Future makes it easy to blend sci-fi into Basic. The problem I keep coming back to is that the characters would by necessity be unique individuals crash-landed on an alien planet, and Basic assumes low-level characters will die and be replaced by jumped-up hirelings or whatnot. Can anyone recommend a plausible way around it? Clones? That might take too much bite out of death though.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2013 00:16
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:2. Has anyone tried eliminating spellcasting from Basic? I've never played Gamma World, so I have no idea if any version of it manages to wrest a balanced play experience from relying on items and mutant powers for healing and other things for which you usually rely on spells.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2013 04:21
|
|
|
Here's a listing of retroclones and D&D-inspired stuff that I found through a thread on rpg.net. Figured folks on this thread (and possibly others) would be interested to know about it. Bonus points if you find the SA easter egg on the list, not listed as OSR but as a retroclone still.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2013 06:42
|
|
|
Gasperkun posted:Here's a listing of retroclones and D&D-inspired stuff that I found through a thread on rpg.net. Figured folks on this thread (and possibly others) would be interested to know about it. This is amazing. Thank you. It's the Holy Rib Fest, obviously. Also, I'm interested in what makes LotFP "tight"
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2013 07:22
|
|
|
I can't speak to LOTFP as such but I can say that a lot of folks I follow who do OSR stuff have plenty good to say about the system and the production values of the books that Raggi produces. Based on stuff I have read people write about it: they like his encumbrance system they like how he does things that mechanically establish a mood/setting even if they don't use it, e.g. fighters are the only ones who increase attack bonus by level and mages don't get most of the flashy spells you would expect, but they do get summons and such (which can be their own level of crazy) It seems to be his own take on either OD&D or Basic, or a mixture of the two; I'm a bit confused about that aspect. I'm not familiar enough with OD&D to be sure but I don't think it had Race-as-class, which I have heard LOTFP does. He also pulls in some crazy stuff in terms of getting people to write adventures for him. Vincent Baker did the Jack Vance homage in Seclusium of Orphone, Kenneth Hite did Qelong - which is literally Fantasy loving Vietnam, if I understand correctly... the module for Spears of the Dawn that Kevin Crawford wrote was originally written to be used as part of the hugefuckingcrowdfundingcampaign with 19 or whatever different adventures (Seclusium was also one of them) and since it didn't originally fund it got re-worked as a stretch goal for the Spears of the Dawn Kickstarter. I'm sure I'm missing some names here.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2013 07:34
|
|
|
Rulebook Heavily posted:NOPE: Feel free to start a different thread I won't feel compelled to mess up because people dragged LotFP into it, though. Yes, he's a big name OSR-wise, but there's a reason he was featured on the frontpage.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2013 08:19
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:If I get to run RC I probably won't make every map myself--I usually use Dave's Dungeon Mapper or a simpler map generator--but the advice on dividing maps into zones, giving them themes, and stocking them with encounters is very helpful. Yeah, if I wasn't working on a random map generator myself I probably wouldn't bother with hand-mapping everything either. There are a lot of really nice geomorphs/maps out there on the internet, and even the same map with two different stockings can be completely different. Halloween Jack posted:Can you tell me some more about how you arrived at your numbers for GP? It seems high. This is kind of simple and kind of complicated? I just made an equation to find how much gold should be in an average room: The amount of XP the party as a whole will probably need to level up once divided by (the number of sessions I want it to take for them to level up * the number of rooms they explore, on average, per session). Then take that number and doubleish it, because half your gold is going to be hidden so well the players are never going to find it/they'll lose the XP from it to player death/some other dumb thing will happen. To figure out how much gold a 20-room zone should have just take this number and multiply it by 20. To get the numbers I posted there I think I assumed a party of 5 PCs on the Fighter XP track, 5 rooms per session explored, and 10 sessions to level up from 1-2/2-3, then 12 for 3-4, 14 for 4-5 and so on. I guess I'll post a quick example here for (relative) clarity. It takes 2k XP for an average character (a fighter?) to hit level 2, and I assumed a party of 5, so it'll take 10k XP for my party to hit level 2 as a whole. They explore maybe 5 rooms a session and I want it to take them 10 sessions to hit level 2, so I want it to take them 50 rooms to find this 10k gold that they need. This means the average room should give them 200 gold. They're level 1, though, so they'll be dropping like flies, so I just bump that up to something in the area of 366gp per room. Multiply that by 20 to get 7300gp or so in a 20-room segment designed for first level characters. I think it is a big more generous than the old-school mindset usually allows for, but the numbers are easy to adjust in pretty much whatever direction you want. Halloween Jack posted:I haven't run old editions of D&D strictly by-the-book, so I don't know how much available gold a party can be expected to find during a typical expedition, or how it works out when you stick to the assumed wealth-by-level. (I'm told that BECMI actually buries characters in magic items, especially cheap, useful disposables like healing potions.) I think that the monster treasure entries in the book are there to be low-effort filler for after you've put all the cool hand-placed treasure in the dungeon. Like, they're maddeningly low if they're all you're giving to your players. The cool thing about xp=gp is that wealth-by-level is literally impossible to mess up. As for magic items, though, consumables are really fun and handy for giving the players additional choices they can make each fight without bogging the game down too bad. Ideally, I'd like each of my players to have something between 2-4 potions/scrolls/wands/whatever on them on average at any given time, but I'd also like for them to use them pretty frequently. I'd definitely say that not being stingy with weird cool little custom-designed utility potions is a nice way to give some tools to the non-casters for coming up with weird solutions to weird problems. One thing I have a hard time doing that I think works fairly well is making non-consumable magic items relatively easy-come easy-go. Losing magic items is a nice 'negative consequence that is not quite death' you can use in times where they choose to surrender rather than TPK or something similar. Having something taking magic items out of the game is fun since it lets you turn up the flow of magic items coming into the game without causing too bad a glut. That said, all these things should vary by party--some players will like that it puts more of an emphasis on their characters rather than their builds, some will grumble but ultimately enjoy the tension it provides, and some will just straight-up feel like you're crippling their character concept when you destroy their magic items. I really didn't like it when I first experienced it, but I've come to appreciate (but fear) it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2013 08:27
|
|
|
Lightning Lord posted:Also, I'm interested in what makes LotFP "tight" Here's what you can do. 1) Go to rpgnow and download the free and art free version of the ruleset. 2) Never buy anything from James Raggi. Edit: Whoa, when did the ACKS pdf drop from its previously obscene $40 to a reasonable $10? DalaranJ fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Oct 26, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2013 15:57
|
|
|
In PDF form I believe ACKS has always been $10 since I discovered it. The hardcopy of the book is around $40, though, and I think has been since I heard about it. I ordered it late last year along with the Companion, right as the Companion was becoming publicly available. Had a few snafus with their fulfiller and eventually had to contact Autarch directly, but I was happy with the customer service I got on that end. Since it is ostensibly considered OSR - at least by some, I should also note that Owl Hoot Trail got released to the public in PDF form, according to Pelgrane's most recent Page XX thingy. It's a fantasy Western game. Casters are split up so not everyone can do everything, and paladins become marshals and such and it's fairly spiffy.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2013 09:01
|
|
|
Ratpick posted:Final Fantasy is very clearly D&D: The JRPG. The very first release even had Vancian spell-casting, where your Mages would have a certain number of uses of a spell until they next rested, the game had Bahamut as a basically benevolent leader of dragons (who sent you on an epic fetchquest for a rat's tail), the classes are pretty much taken straight from D&D (with the Red Mage as the not-Bard and the Black Belt as the not-Monk for good measure) and the Fighter even does the BECMI thing of eventually learning white magic because they obviously became a Paladin (albeit under a different name). There is specifically an rpg meant to be a tabletop Final fantasy http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/john-higgins/retro-phaze-ebook/ebook/product-21032590.html (it's even in the op and it's free)
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2013 10:55
|
|
|
Okay, let's talk random tables. I'm going to try and run a sandbox with an old school flavour but I must profess, I don't really get random tables. When should they be used? How do you write a good one as opposed to a bad one? Hell, how do you even tell a good one from a bad one? Give me the low-down from your collected wisdom!
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 14:27
|
|
|
You use a random table whenever you need the answer to a game related question and either don't have one ready or can't come up with something in 30 seconds. They're also good for sparking off ideas that you might not have had yourself - helps avoid design ruts. The only measure of whether a table is good or bad is whether its useful to you or not.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 15:33
|
|
|
Angrymog posted:You use a random table whenever you need the answer to a game related question and either don't have one ready or can't come up with something in 30 seconds. They're bad when you obey them slavishly and don't discard bad results. If the party is a paladin, a ranger, a wizard, and a cleric and you roll a +4 anarchic defending nunchuks in a treasure parcel, reroll or pick something next to it on the list. They're also bad when you think they're meant to procedurally generate an entire world for you, on a map where hexes/rooms are linked to terrain types which are linked to random tables. Your players don't care how many discarded fishbones are in the average troglodyte den. In my opinion, anyone who wants that kind of game might as well save time and play a roguelike.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 15:51
|
|
|
I wrote a bunch of my own random generators in C++. They all work in a console window, and print out to a text file. They're written for AD&D 2e, but a bunch of them aren't specific to a system. Mundane Item Generator rolls up non-magical treasure of many many many kinds. It rolls the item type, the material type, the quality, adornments and modifiers, descriptors for it, and sometimes the maker's name and city. All the information is pulled from some config text files in it, so most things can be modified by the user, and new items put in and such. You can even make your own item tables by tagging the items with table names. You can either roll items by choosing the gold value and rolling a single item, or a collection of items that add up to that amount, or just X random items from the table. Examples: A very small 11"x14" painting of a homonculous. The homonculous is choking. On it is the maker's mark of Plameng of Nearall. 3gp, 6sp A medium 4'x6' tapestry of a friar. The friar is begging. On it is the maker's mark of Lage of Farall. 72gp A set of 2 bronze snuff boxes. 7sp, 2cp A set of 4 poor 30gal barrel of meads. 40gp A copper chime lamp. Has a trio of inset corals: pink to crimson, worth 100gp each. 301gp A masterwork cotton shirt, dyed yellow. 17gp, 8sp An alabaster life-sized statue of The Diviner Ampa Spuqolp. Has an inset jasper: blue, black to brown, worth 50gp. 260gp A leather knife sheath, dyed deep red. 1gp, 8sp A set of 8 fine bird's eye maple spoons. 12gp Then I have a Book Generator, because my players found a dozen books and had the gall to ask for information on them! This just rolls up lists of book names and authors. It's pretty much mad libs with large sets of words. I take the ones with interesting names, and figure out the contents based on the name. Names are randomly rolled up from my Name Generator which is pretty terrible. Here's 10 I just rolled up: 'Ruthless Portfolio of the Tower's Moon' by Claldilp Drosul, the Father of Sparks 'Dissertation of Nothings' by Joldef Puntan'Lactod, the Pontiff of Teachers 'Omnibus of the Gate's Force' by The Brilliant Rogue Skuqug Nidosk 'Obsessed Manual of the Endless Searches' by Wukolm Pluxin, the Lord 'Fifth Abyss' by Egus Groha of the Rising Year 'The Licking Doors' by The Only Evoker Ruftim Brap 'Codex of Worlds and Captives' by The Emperor Toden Stulp 'Essay of Dragons' by The Red Pontiff Snuftold Pluspoln 'Twinkling Birches of Beginnings' by Daqob Zelbil, the Crusader of Saviors 'Absent Silence' by Egag Stubiw, the Destroyer of Pasts Then I have a kingdom generator, which generates a random landform, kingdom size, races and their relationships, and whatever else that I forgot. Kind of a weekend project on a whime. Ex: A small kingdom, 335 miles wide. It is on a large island, and covered in forests. It has a sub-arctic climate. Dominant race: Ogre The races live in separate communities; one race is dominant. The kingdom's government is a chaotic neutral Satrapy. It has a Arabic culture, and a Bronze Age level of technology. The main subsistence methods are banditry and light agriculture. ----- A medium kingdom, 424 miles wide. It is on a long coast with many offshore islands, and covered in frozen hills. It has an arctic climate. Dominant race: Human Major race: Beholder-kin Minor race: Giant The races live in separate communities; one race is dominant, but the other races are considered equal. The kingdom's government is a lawful evil Feudalism. It has a Roman culture, and a Savage level of technology. The main subsistence methods are mining and raiding. Then my Noble House generator, inspired from Game of Thrones, which rolls up a house's line and prints it out. You don't want a large house as it gets difficult to read with my given console printout methods, but it works. Stats matter a ton and influence lots of things in the program, and stats are mendelian in nature. The kids inherit the parents stats in a way. Ex: code:All found on my dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ifeo68p5u7y2ils/qcZgtEVqg- They should work on Windows systems. I don't get a lot of feedback, so if anyone uses them, please let me know what you think.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 18:08
|
|
|
I still highly recommend your Noble House Generator I commented on back in May, complete with entirely age-inappropriate deaths like a one-year old "offending the wrong mage" or "went to war, never returned."
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 18:46
|
|
|
Snorb posted:I still highly recommend your Noble House Generator I commented on back in May, complete with entirely age-inappropriate deaths like a one-year old "offending the wrong mage" or "went to war, never returned." It's hardly impossible for a sufficiently paranoid mage to have Contingencies prepared to blast eldritch doppelgängers from the 8 2/7th dimension, triggered by the distinctive gurgle they make as they shed their human forms to strike. It's not like humans make noises like that, after all!
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2013 19:00
|
|
|
Snorb posted:I still highly recommend your Noble House Generator I commented on back in May, complete with entirely age-inappropriate deaths like a one-year old "offending the wrong mage" or "went to war, never returned." Thanks! That Mundane Item Generator is one of my newer ones that I worked on for a long time. I made it as user customizable as possible. You can have multiple text files to differentiate the items in the lists, and each item is written up easily like this: code:Then for the city names for where the items are made, you put in a list of city names, what material types they produce, and their distance from the campaign location. The distance modifies the chance of an item from there appearing, and raises the price the farther off it is. The material types are used as a ratio, so you can have certain stone making places make fewer stone items than a larger one. It's my current pride and joy. Though I ran out of ideas for items after a hundred something. Might go back in and add furniture.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2013 04:04
|
|
|
SeventhSanctum.com has a lot of random tables for generating stuff, including books, fancy swords, and unique monsters. (Also martial arts moves and pro wrestling event names.) Mapmage.com has very detailed generators for books (not titles, but how it's bound and what it's written on), names, and maps. They're selling their stuff through the Apple app store now, but I think the Windows-based freeware versions of their stuff are still floating all over.Lightning Lord posted:My question is if you're eliminating spellcasting, why aren't you just using Mutant Future straight up? It's basically Labyrinth Lord retooled as Gamma World. You reminded me of a question I forgot! One of the things I Do Not Like about D&D right from the get-go is that the attack/defense dynamic is based on armor. I'm not among those who give a poo poo about the "realism" of armor making you hard to hit, it's just a huge assumption to make if you want the system to be able to cover everything from high-medieval to sword-and-sandal to Barsoom. The only retrogame I know of that dispenses with armor entirely is Blood & Bullets, a Wild West Swords & Wizardry derivate that gives a class-based scaling bonus to defense. I have no idea if it's balanced or not. In early boxed-set D&D any fighter of any level can put on plate mail and take his defense from "totally hosed" to "really good," while later editions assumed everyone would start with the best mundane armor they could wear and that magic items are part of level progression. What little Gamma World I've played indicates it's not meant to be balanced. Has anyone tried or houseruled a system where the to-hit scaling for PCs isn't based on armor? How did it go? The closest I can think of is Old School Hack, where armor/shields are a resource rather than a basis of the combat system, but let's face it, OSH is not really a D&D ruleset.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2013 16:20
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:Has anyone tried or houseruled a system where the to-hit scaling for PCs isn't based on armor? How did it go? The closest I can think of is Old School Hack, where armor/shields are a resource rather than a basis of the combat system, but let's face it, OSH is not really a D&D ruleset. D20 Conan does this, with all the classes having a Dodge and Parry defenses instead of AC. Conan D20 isn't oldschool tho and fiddly as all hell.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2013 18:09
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:Also, my understanding is that if you play BECMI straight, it's very well-balanced for its time, and I absolutely intend to use the advanced combat options that make fighters cool. (I understand I'll have to come up with some bones to throw to rogues.) Is this really true? From the accounts I've read from old TSR employees, the line went through very little playtesting. Reading through the Companion books, it seems to me like they were barely even copyedited, let alone playtested.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2013 22:10
|
|
|
I am not too familiar with the second edition, but Spycraft, which was built on d20, had level-based defense bonuses according to class, I think. Some of the Star Wars d20 games did too, though I think they made Reflex saves equivalent to your AC in Saga Edition. Of course, this is on d20 specifically so there's the numerical difference in play. The only other thing I can think of off the top of my head from an OSR type game which obviates armor need for characters comes from Spears of the Dawn, where one of the warrior class abilities (sort of like d20 Feats and sort of not), which you can pick up at level 1, basically gives you the AC you would have with heavy armor, but you aren't required to actually wear armor to get this bonus. The fluff on it indicates you are supernaturally/divinely gifted or extremely well-trained in battle or basically whatever else you can come up with. This is also a bigger deal in that setting because wearing armor can complicate things for you due to heat exhaustion (it's sword & sorcery, Africa style). Considering that the warrior class in that game covers basically anything martial, you can use it to stand in for rogues, unarmed fighter/monk types (if you want to import other setting stuff or try to jig up some kind of berserker or animal combat style type), and so on. That doesn't really answer your question but it's the only thing in print/published in some form that I've seen that deals with non-armor AC for people out of OSR material. The only other thing I recall is 1st edition Oriental Adventures. Kensai were meant to be unarmored and fight with a specific weapon. They subtracted their Dexterity score from a constant and then received a level up bonus of some sort, while monks started at the bottom and just improved AC by 1 every level I think (but they also had d4 HD, even if I think they began with 2 HD at 1st level). Edit: You could also use the Shields Will Be Splintered rule, which is popular with OSR blogs, to make shields into a resource more than an additional piece of defense. If you haven't heard of it, it basically lets you destroy a shield in order to negate an attack that would have hit you otherwise. What sorts of attacks this applies to might be up to the GM, etc. Maybe magic shields are the only ones that can block attacks of specific types, etc. Gasperkun fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Oct 31, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 04:43
|
|
|
I like the familiarity and simplicity of BECMI D&D, but I also like a lot of the cool mechanics from current iterations of D&D like Dungeon World and 13th Age. Has anyone had success porting in some of these mechanics into older editions or retroclones? I feel like One Unique Things in particular would be a fun way to spice up my future games.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 04:47
|
|
|
Épées et Sorcellerie (a French retroclone based on OD&D) also uses a system where your AC is the better of your Dexterity or your Armor. It effectively allows for playing an unarmored warrior type if you were lucky enough to roll a high Dexterity. It's got ascending AC, so you could easily adapt it to any BECMI clone that allows for ascending AC (like Dark Dungeons). That said, E&S is very much a swords and sorcery game, so unarmored warriors being a thing that the game actively encourages is definitely intentional.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 04:54
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:SeventhSanctum.com has a lot of random tables for generating stuff, including books, fancy swords, and unique monsters. (Also martial arts moves and pro wrestling event names.) Mapmage.com has very detailed generators for books (not titles, but how it's bound and what it's written on), names, and maps. They're selling their stuff through the Apple app store now, but I think the Windows-based freeware versions of their stuff are still floating all over. I'm a big fan of Wizardawn for random map generation. Seriously, it's the best random online map creator I've found. Halloween Jack posted:Has anyone tried or houseruled a system where the to-hit scaling for PCs isn't based on armor? How did it go? The closest I can think of is Old School Hack, where armor/shields are a resource rather than a basis of the combat system, but let's face it, OSH is not really a D&D ruleset. I do something kind of like this with weapons already, where the damage die you use is based on your class instead of the weapon type you're using. The way the Basic weapon-proficency rules work out pretty much are identical to 'wizards do 1d4, clerics and halflings do 1d6, and fighter-types do 1d8', so when playing with new players I tend to just cut out the weapon-stats entirely and make it all about the characters. I don't think this would be too hard to do with armor. Just give fighters a base AC of 3 and roll with it from there. Things might get a little weird with issues like shield-use, but none of that should be too hard to puzzle out.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 06:21
|
|
|
OtspIII posted:I'm a big fan of Wizardawn for random map generation. Seriously, it's the best random online map creator I've found. I'm not sure things would get weird with shield use. Just assume a cleric and fighter are using shields when you work out their AC. If the fighter wants to be all like "TWO HANDED SWORD  " his AC gets worse by one and his damage die goes up one step.e: In my opinion, he shouldn't need a "two handed sword" to do this - just cast aside his shield and go all Conan. It's hardly going to break the game if he doesn't have to carry two slightly different swords around.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 07:21
|
|
|
whydirt posted:I like the familiarity and simplicity of BECMI D&D, but I also like a lot of the cool mechanics from current iterations of D&D like Dungeon World and 13th Age. Has anyone had success porting in some of these mechanics into older editions or retroclones? I feel like One Unique Things in particular would be a fun way to spice up my future games. Something I've been contemplating on implementing is the way combat works in World of Dungeons. Start at a number for combat rating instead of thaco, I usually use 8 or 9, if you roll under then you roll damage. If you roll over then monsters do damage. If you roll the number exactly you roll damage and gain an advantage.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 14:14
|
|
|
whydirt posted:I like the familiarity and simplicity of BECMI D&D, but I also like a lot of the cool mechanics from current iterations of D&D like Dungeon World and 13th Age. Has anyone had success porting in some of these mechanics into older editions or retroclones? I feel like One Unique Things in particular would be a fun way to spice up my future games. Dungeon World style Discern Realities would work like a charm in BECMI. The range of modifiers is even the same in BECMI and DW. I could also see myself using Last Breath pretty much as is in BECMI. As far as 13th Age is concerned, One Unique Things and Icons are already pretty much system neutral already, but since characters are a lot more squishy in BECMI than in 13th Age players might struggle with coming up with unique color for a character that may not even survive the first session (or worse, the first combat). One particular line that I hear a lot in relation to old-school D&D is "Your character is pretty much a nobody for the first three levels, after that they're significant characters." Using that line of reasoning, you could have Icon relationships built through gameplay: your first three levels are pretty much the introductory levels. Each time you level up choose an Icon whose minions or servants you've interacted with and take an appropriate relationship die with that Icon. Once you make it to level 4 you won't gain more relationship dice until you reach name level.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 16:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 03:29 |
|
|
AlphaDog posted:I'm not sure things would get weird with shield use. Just assume a cleric and fighter are using shields when you work out their AC. If the fighter wants to be all like "TWO HANDED SWORD
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 16:13
|
|