|
Commissar Kip posted:Does anyone have a suggestion with which module to begin our retro-rampage? T1 (Village of Hommlet) and B2 (The Keep on the Borderlands / Caves of Chaos) are both really good intro modules to this style of play, both for you and them. I will note that B2 is a bit harder to run, since a huge part of it is the various guard stations and factions and so on and how they interact--you're kind of expected to do things like send off runners for reinforcements if the fight's going badly and stuff like that, so you need a bit more familiarity with the module as a whole than you would with T1. The rest of the T-series (Temple of Elemental Evil) supposedly is enough to take your characters up to some absurdly high level all by themselves, but there is a pretty big power-gap between T1 and T2, as I understand it. They sound fun, though. A lot of people claim B1 (Into the Unknown) as the pinnacle of old-school modules, but everyone I've seen play it builds up this either love-hate or just hate-hate relationship with it. Its map is god-loving-awful to deal with. I6 (Ravenloft) was a ton of fun. We kind of broke it by accidentally finding a really powerful anti-vampire item right off the bat, but it was still a really good time. Once you start to get into tournament-style modules things change a lot. I ran A3 (Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords) recently and was really surprised at how linear it was. Oh, and run S1 (Tomb of Horrors) fairly late, once your players understand that it's an outlier and not how Old-School play actually worked. Either that or just run it first-thing, making it totally clear that it's a joke and that later modules will be actually fun in more than a 'look at all the ways I died' manner.
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2014 18:33
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 5, 2024 18:19 |
|
|
White Plume Mountain (S2) is a more player-friendly take on Tomb Of Horrors, in that it's lighter on the instadeath no-save gently caress YOU traps, heavier on the quirky NPC enemies, and is actually potentially survivable. It's certainly my favourite of the S-series dungeon crawls.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2014 22:00
|
|
|
Commissar Kip posted:My group wants to play the old modules (Tomb of Horrors, Temple of Elemental Evil, Village of Hommlet, Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, etc) and experience 'old school dungeon delving'. I was thinking about running Labyrinth Lords, is it easy to play these old modules in that system? Commissar Kip posted:Also, as all of my players 'learn' to play rpgs using Pathfinder (we started only 3 years ago): how hard is it to go back to the older systems for 3.x players? Commissar Kip posted:How do you guys handle followers? Commissar Kip posted:Does anyone have a suggestion with which module to begin our retro-rampage?
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2014 02:00
|
|
|
Commissar Kip posted:Help me out here brosefs. In my experience generally your average 3.x/Pathfinder player is fine when going back to older editions, but charoppers balk because there's not much to tweak and most of their interest in the game is all about that. Nothing wrong with it, but they just won't get much out of Basic style D&D. A lot of BX/BECMI modules are really good. Three of my favorites: B10 - Night's Dark Terror starts out with a goblin siege of a town, but then opens up to be about uncovering a huge mystery involving an organized crime and slaving group, the Iron Ring. It was designed to teach DMs how to run wilderness games, so it's not really strictly a dungeon delve, although it does include dungeons. It's essentially an entire sandboxy campaign though. B4 - The Lost City is an adventure in a giant underground complex, with a couple of factions struggling for dominance. D&D's take on the Conan story Red Nails. It's all a bit loosely sketched out, but that's by design so you can fill in the gaps. It's a good example of how old school adventures handled dungeons where you actually don't kill everything. I've run this recently so if you decide you like the look of it, I'm up for sharing some more tips. B6 - The Veiled Society is a city adventure set in Specularum, the capital of Karameikos, a country in the Mystara setting. It's a murder mystery involving three rival noble families. It's different from most old school D&D adventures, but in an interesting way. VacuumJockey posted:Check out Fire in the Jungle, a massive 16-page jungle hexcrawl. It has an anthill generator. This looks very interesting. Did you write it? That reminds me that I gotta check out Frog Gods' Hex Crawl Chronicles. Are those any good? Lightning Lord fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Feb 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2014 09:48
|
|
|
Night's Dark Terror looks promising - so does Fire in the Jungle (but what level should the character be?). There's so much that I feel like a kid in a candy store. Thanks for everyones suggestions and help so far! I've been wanting to do this earlier, but you guys inspired me to just jump in and go retro. I figured out the descending AC (It's just AC-20 and then you get what you need to roll above, right? e.g. 7-20=13 so roll over 13 to hit). And I like the way skills work (I dislike the constant use of d20's on skills). But is it normal that in LL a warrior can get level 20+ and a halfling can't go higher then 8? Luckily my players aren't min-maxers - I am the only one who does in the other game we play (another player DMs). All they care about is fleshing out their character and living the story. I won't get them to play Tomb of Horrors yet, mainly because some still have to learn that it's ok if a PC dies. Some get pretty attached to their dude. I think this mainly comes due to the amount of time he sticks into making a Pathfinder character (choosing feats, distributing skills) and 1e/2e doesn't have this (thanks god). When using a hex map to travel, how do you guys do this? Do you print out the map and then use a figure/flag/coin to denote the position of the party?
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2014 10:57
|
|
|
Commissar Kip posted:I figured out the descending AC (It's just AC-20 and then you get what you need to roll above, right? e.g. 7-20=13 so roll over 13 to hit). And I like the way skills work (I dislike the constant use of d20's on skills). But is it normal that in LL a warrior can get level 20+ and a halfling can't go higher then 8? That's normal. The halfling will have amazing saves and the higher level warrior is only getting 1 hp per level after 9. If you use the later box sets, you even increase in your weapon skills after you hit the cap. Your level is just a roman numeral for some reason. There are also many published ways to remove the cap that are free. If you want to be fancy in your hexcrawling you can use an old overlay that came with tons of TSR products or DIY it and print a hexgrid on an overhead projector sheet. Read this article, http://steamtunnel.blogspot.com/2009/12/in-praise-of-6-mile-hex.html it should give you an idea on how to navigate the hex maps. Babylon Astronaut fucked around with this message at 12:57 on Jan 17, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2014 12:33
|
|
|
Our DM never let us see the "game," map - he would either doodle something out or let us sketch something up - kept his stuff secret that way.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2014 13:47
|
|
|
Lightning Lord posted:S1 - Night's Dark Terror[ka-snip] I didn't write FitJ, I just admire how much useful material the author crammed into 16 pages. Lean and mean, just the way I like it.  I have a couple of the first Hex Crawl Chronicles, and they're exactly what it says on the cover. I don't use them as-is, but cannibalize bits and pieces of them for my own nefarious purposes. You can check out some of Stater's other hexcrawl offerings here, #1 and #6 is free. You could also check out Points of Light (review) for more fine old-school hexcrawling. Commissar Kip posted:Night's Dark Terror looks promising - so does Fire in the Jungle (but what level should the character be?). There's so much that I feel like a kid in a candy store. Thanks for everyones suggestions and help so far! I've been wanting to do this earlier, but you guys inspired me to just jump in and go retro. If memory serves me right, Night's Dark Terror is intended to guide beginners into the Expert (blue book) rules, so I'm guessing you should be around 4. level - although it's not written in stone. Fire in the Jungle, hmm... I wouldn't send green 1. level characters in there, but apart from that it's pretty flexible. In my own campaign, I had an Imperial whaling station on a small island just off the western coast of Jungleland where the party could go to cash in and heal up. Of course, they conveniently found a treasure map leading to The Jungle on the very same adventure where they leveled up to level 2!  As for hexmap travelling, I (the DM) use roll20.net on my laptop and we have an iPad on the other side of the screen. Your idea would work too, but of course exploring the map is part of the fun; printing out the map kind of spoils that aspect. For more on this, I highly recommend that you check out Ben Robbin's West Marches Manifesto; there's a lot of useful stuff about mapping in there.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2014 14:30
|
|
|
Commissar Kip posted:I figured out the descending AC (It's just AC-20 and then you get what you need to roll above, right? e.g. 7-20=13 so roll over 13 to hit). Most character sheets have little To-Hit Cheat Charts, where you can just write down what number on a d20 you need to roll to hit any given AC. I can not stress enough how useful this is--it turns THAC0 from something unambiguously worse than BAB+d20 into something that's actually easier and quicker than doing the math in your head. People do a lot of attacking in D&D, and anything that even speeds up them taking their turn by a second is a really good thing. Babylon Astronaut posted:That's normal. The halfling will have amazing saves and the higher level warrior is only getting 1 hp per level after 9. If you use the later box sets, you even increase in your weapon skills after you hit the cap. Your level is just a roman numeral for some reason. There are also many published ways to remove the cap that are free. Also, it takes people a long time to level in these games. I'm playing in a campaign that's been running for almost four years now and we're only starting to approach name level. VacuumJockey posted:As for hexmap travelling, I (the DM) use roll20.net on my laptop and we have an iPad on the other side of the screen. Your idea would work too, but of course exploring the map is part of the fun; printing out the map kind of spoils that aspect. For more on this, I highly recommend that you check out Ben Robbin's West Marches Manifesto; there's a lot of useful stuff about mapping in there. That's a cool way to handle it--I've used Roll20 this way for an online game, but never thought about using it in person. Mapping is hands-down my favorite part of D&D, but it's something that takes a specific type of personality, which might be missing from your group. I don't suggest ever just showing them a map, but you should experiment with different levels of abstracting traveling to places they've already been--getting lost as you try to escape the dungeon can be really fun, it can be campaign-quittingly frustrating.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2014 18:04
|
|
|
OtspIII posted:I don't suggest ever just showing them a map, but you should experiment with different levels of abstracting traveling to places they've already been--getting lost as you try to escape the dungeon can be really fun, it can be campaign-quittingly frustrating.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2014 16:30
|
|
|
homullus posted:The exception is of course giving them an incomplete map, to which they can add details. That's fair. Partial maps make great treasure, too!
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2014 16:45
|
|
|
This is a bit out of date but Roles, Rules, & Rolls finally published the first version of The 52 pages project. It has some nice shorthand rules, and spell cards, if you're into that.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2014 05:49
|
|
|
I'd suggest anyone looking for a more unique OSR game to give Hideouts & Hoodlums a look; a superhero game based on the Golden Age of Comic & derives it's rules from Swords & Wizardry White Box and is pretty good, also it's pretty cheap(the entire game only costs about $25 total)
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2014 07:30
|
|
|
In other news, the creator of Red Tide and Spears of the Dawn is working on Scarlet Heroes, a retroclone designed for play with 1 player and one Dungeon Master. Currently it's a Kickstarter, but if you donate at least $10 you get an art-free beta version of the product for download. Yes, you can play the game before it even comes out! Better yet, there's a preview of the Create a Hero chapter free for download!
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2014 08:25
|
|
|
Scarlet Heroes is doing pretty well. It funded for a quickstart now, to be released later in PDF and as an "at-cost" deal for backers, estimated to be dirt cheap cost-wise ($2 or so plus S&H). But what is really cool about the way Sine Nomine KS projects are run is that we have hit the goal to get the art released to the public. And after some deals with the mapmaker, that also includes the maps. This was a similar thing with Spears of the Dawn, which released an African-themed art pack into the wild - you can download it through DTRPG, etc. I expect the Scarlet Heroes art pack will be put up also, and judging by Mr. Crawford's comments about the art for the game, the full digital version may be available before the funding period ends, since he is mostly waiting on art at this point. All good stuff, really.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2014 02:12
|
|
|
Ravendas posted:Plus, I wrote a bunch of c++ programs to help me run the game and make the world, including a quick and deep character generator, terrible random name generator, book name generator, weather generator, treasure generator exactly from the DMG with tons of options, and my favorite, my Inngoers program, that spawns groups of NPCs of many types in different groups, originally meant to represent the people found in the inns in my campaign. Is there anything I could do to convince you to post your source code, perhaps to a service like Bitbucket? Totally understand if you'd rather not. Regardless, thanks again! minidracula fucked around with this message at 12:06 on Mar 7, 2014 |
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2014 12:03
|
|
|
For S&W, does the HDE/CL value of a monster mean that an encounter would be a small trial/tribulation, or a death defying existential threat? For example I'm reading a one-shot dungeon which features a Giant Slug as the guardian to the ENTRANCE, which has a CL of 6, while everything else in the dungeon is on the 3-4 level. What would be appropriate CLs for a new set of characters? (if anyone has any pre-built halfling priest NPCs with the monster-type stats I would be greatly obliged)
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2014 22:38
|
|
|
minidracula posted:I found a link to your programs from another forums thread, and have just started playing around with them. Thanks for making these, and thanks for making them available! I keep them updated on Dragonsfoot, so I assume you found it there. I haven't posted any source code, don't think I will either. I might one day cobble them together into some android apps...
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2014 01:54
|
|
|
Southern Heel posted:For S&W, does the HDE/CL value of a monster mean that an encounter would be a small trial/tribulation, or a death defying existential threat? For example I'm reading a one-shot dungeon which features a Giant Slug as the guardian to the ENTRANCE, which has a CL of 6, while everything else in the dungeon is on the 3-4 level. What would be appropriate CLs for a new set of characters? If the slug has acid spit that's a lethal encounter. Because 3d6 damage one shots people with 3d6 HP. If it doesn't have any ranged attacks then the party can beat it by kiting it, or just avoid it because it probably can only move at the same rate as the fighter. I don't have a lot of experience with S&W but the rulebook suggests that a +3 CL encounter is basically an existential threat. Not really intended to be fought directly (which is why the slug thing is confusing). There should only be one or two of them on a regular dungeon level. Would you like a good or evil halfling priest, and around what level/CL? Edit: Oh, wait do you mean a halfling whose job is being a priest, or a halfling that has cleric levels? DalaranJ fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Mar 10, 2014 |
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2014 05:34
|
|
|
Thanks, that clarifies things alot. As for halfling chaotic cleric - he is the BBG of part 2/2 of my new adventure so should be pretty challenging for 3-4 Level 2 PCs. The evil mastermind behind bringing the centipede and rat gods together in a holy union to destroy a local city.
|
|
#
?
Mar 10, 2014 16:35
|
|
|
Southern Heel posted:Thanks, that clarifies things alot. As for halfling chaotic cleric - he is the BBG of part 2/2 of my new adventure so should be pretty challenging for 3-4 Level 2 PCs. The evil mastermind behind bringing the centipede and rat gods together in a holy union to destroy a local city. Will they be facing ratipedes or centirats?
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2014 03:13
|
|
|
Southern Heel posted:Thanks, that clarifies things alot. As for halfling chaotic cleric - he is the BBG of part 2/2 of my new adventure so should be pretty challenging for 3-4 Level 2 PCs. The evil mastermind behind bringing the centipede and rat gods together in a holy union to destroy a local city. Alright, how about this. Chaotic Halfling Priest Hit Dice: 3 Armor Class: 3[17] Attack: Mace 1d6 Saving Throw: 14 (10 vs Magic) Special: Spells (see below) Move: 9 Alignment: Chaos Challenge Level: 4(/120) Spells: The Halfling Priest prepares 1 Cure Light Wounds and 1 Cause Light Wounds (reversed cure light wounds) each day. Treasure: 2 Scrolls of Charm Vermin (as snake charm, but effects only rodents or insects the size of a housecat or smaller) Halfling Plate Armor, Mace, Shield Ring of Poison Resistance Tactics: If forewarned, or on his first turn the priest reads a scroll of Charm Vermin. This allows him to summon from the woodwork 2 giant rats (small), and 2 giant centipedes (small, non-lethal venom). Both of the Giant Rats are diseased. The priest commands the rats to protect him (especially while he prepares spells) and the centipedes to flank the enemy and attempt to bite spellcasters. The vermin do not have the opportunity to attack the first turn they appear. The vermin remain under his command for up to 4 turns (40 minutes). The priest attempts to use his cause light wounds against armored targets and cure light wounds on himself whenever an opportunity arises. The priest only has enough power to read his charm vermin scrolls once per day (leaving one as treasure if the heroes can defeat him quickly). DalaranJ fucked around with this message at 03:21 on Mar 11, 2014 |
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2014 03:18
|
|
|
^ That's perfect, thank you very much.JohnnyCanuck posted:Will they be facing ratipedes or centirats? I am framing the adventure as so: The Adventurers have narrowly escaped an ambush to their caravan, dishevelled and weak they have arrived at an Inn in the dead of night. The innkeeper's fee for bed and board? Clearing out the cellar of their rat problem. Of course, it turns out that the innkeeper is using hapless travelling 'help' as meals for the transmogrified rat-monster he's summoned in the catacombs below the building - it's transmogrification fueled by spore-filled censers. Once it's gained enough strength, it's sure to be released upon the countryside Assuming our adventurers can best the rat-monster, the obvious signs this was a deliberate trap will mean our innkeeper will flee any questioning. Pursuit into the grey forest will lead our adventurers towards a hollowed tree and a catacomb of insectoid tunnels: mushrooms and fungus everywhere, giant rats and rat swarms. The top half of the dungeon will be focused around Halfling-Centipede hybrids (i.e. kobolds) harvesting spores and our innkeeper/priest, the bottom half with giant centipedes, crawlers and slugs. I'd love to hear any comments/critique!
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2014 12:12
|
|
|
Southern Heel posted:Assuming our adventurers can best the rat-monster, the obvious signs this was a deliberate trap will mean our innkeeper will flee any questioning. Pursuit into the grey forest will lead our adventurers towards a hollowed tree and a catacomb of insectoid tunnels: mushrooms and fungus everywhere, giant rats and rat swarms. The top half of the dungeon will be focused around Halfling-Centipede hybrids (i.e. kobolds) harvesting spores and our innkeeper/priest, the bottom half with giant centipedes, crawlers and slugs. I don't remember the exact name, but there's a One Page Dungeon all about half-centipede half-halflings led by a halfling chaotic cleric you should check out for inspiration.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2014 13:01
|
|
|
OtspIII posted:I don't remember the exact name, but there's a One Page Dungeon all about half-centipede half-halflings led by a halfling chaotic cleric you should check out for inspiration. Yep, it's pretty much what I'm cribbing from - trying to pull it togther into something a little longer than a page
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2014 14:02
|
|
|
Should I 'test' for things in S&W with modified rolls vs. a given stat or the PC's ST, or not at all? For example, a dangerous move like avoiding a sprung trap or navigating a crumbling viaduct.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2014 15:14
|
|
|
Southern Heel posted:Should I 'test' for things in S&W with modified rolls vs. a given stat or the PC's ST, or not at all? For example, a dangerous move like avoiding a sprung trap or navigating a crumbling viaduct. The traditional method would be: If the situation involves intelligence or perception don't roll. Talk it out instead like you are a parser for an interactive fiction game, only hopefully better at interaction. If the action is covered by a class table like Thievery skills use that. If the action involves a character dodging or resisting an effect roll against their ST. (This is the first case you mentioned). Otherwise, come up with a rudimentary base rolling system and stick with it. (This is the second case you mentioned.) A couple examples are, Roll under a single stat on a d20 to accomplish the task as if were their ST for that action, (like TAAC, a great game linked earlier in the thread) Roll a d20 modified by the appropriate stat (in S&W this is probably just a +1 if 13 or better or a -1 if 8 or worse) and add an additional 2 if the action 'makes sense' for the class of the character. Try to beat a 10 if the task is simple or a 15 if it is complicated. (More like 3rd or 4th edition D&D) Roll 2d6 modified by the appropriate stat as above. 6 is a partial success, 9 is a full success. (Like Dungeon World or Apocalypse World) I'm sure there are some instances where the game expects you to roll against an NPCs morale score, but I don't recall when that happens in S&W.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2014 03:02
|
|
|
And as always, make sure either the results of both success and failure are interesting! Otherwise, why bother rolling?
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2014 03:17
|
|
|
Looks like Wizarddawn dropped his server from godaddy so if you're using his generators you'll have to go here instead, wizardawn.dyndns.org
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2014 05:57
|
|
|
DalaranJ posted:Looks like Wizarddawn dropped his server from godaddy so if you're using his generators you'll have to go here instead, Yeah, he posted at dragonsfoot about it. He's switching services at the moment.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2014 14:51
|
|
|
Did anyone pickup Scarlet Heroes? This might be exactly what my gaming "Group" needed (two people, as two others had to drop out..) Spent the morning creating a city for Fafhrd/Gray Mouser style adventures..
|
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2014 14:43
|
|
|
SirFozzie posted:Did anyone pickup Scarlet Heroes? This might be exactly what my gaming "Group" needed (two people, as two others had to drop out..) I've been going through the PDF slowly. It's got some interesting ideas. There are only four classes (the standard D&D "core"), and you don't get class abilities as you level up; your bonuses are either front-loaded or are numerical bonuses that increase automatically as you level. Plus you get 13th Age-style backgrounds called "traits" that are basically your skills. It should be pointed out that anyone can use any weapon, but your damage dice cap out based on your class. A fighter always uses his weapon's damage dice, whereas a cleric's damage die caps out at 1d6 regardless of what the weapon's normal damage is. Saves and skill checks work off 2d8, with saves always difficulty 9. Attack rolls are d20+attack bonus+target's AC, a 20 or more hits. Damage is pretty non-standard. When you roll damage, you roll a bunch of dice but don't add them up. Any die that comes up 1 does no damage, a 2-5 does one damage, 6-9 is two, and 10+ is three. Damage does overflow, so if you take out a weak enemy and still have damage left over you can apply it to another enemy. You also have Fray Dice (based on your class), which you roll on top of your normal attack which represent things like wide swings, shield bashes, thowrn knives, and minor attack spells you're doing in addition to your normal attack. The Fray Die does damage as normal, but the damage can only be applied to creatures whose hit dice are equal to or less than your level. Well, unless you're a wizard, in which case you can apply it to any creature, but his Fray Die is only a d4 so at most he's doing one extra point of damage. Monsters do have "hit dice", but they're not rolled. Any hit you do knocks a HD off a monster. So a 4HD monster is technically 4th level, but in D&D terms only has four hit points. Just as a breakdown of classes: Fighters can use every weapon to its full potential, wear any armor, +1 to hit per level, 1d8 Fray Die, and the about twice as many hit points as everyone else. Clerics can wear any armor but their weapon damage caps out at 1d6. They can turn undead and cast cleric spells (5 levels, 8 spells per level). Magic-users can't wear armor, and their max weapon die is 1d4. They do get spells (10 spells at each of 5 levels), and their 1d4 Fray Die can be applied to any creature regardless of it's hit dice. Thieves can't wear anything above leather, and their max damage die is 1d8. They get a bonus trait to cover their thief skills that starts at +3, and if they can catch an enemy unaware they get +4 to hit and does triple damage. e: I should point out that the Fray Die is rolled regardless of what you "main" action is. You can be trying to bash down a door and you can still roll your Fray Die, and it's rolled outside of your attack roll. So you can attack, and regardless of if you hit or miss, you still get to roll your Fray Die. Evil Mastermind fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Mar 23, 2014 |
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2014 16:57
|
|
|
@Evil Mastermind: to clarify for spellcasters, there are 8/10 spells total for spell levels, and not class levels as per Vancian magic. For example, 1st-level Cleric can only prepare one 1st-level spell per day, but has 8 1st-level spells to choose from after daily prayer. I picked up Scarlet Heroes, and I like it a lot. I haven't played it yet, but its rules touch upon a lot of the potential pitfalls of one-on-one gaming. Due to the interchangeability of OSR rulesets, the author designed it so that it can be run with other old-school retroclone adventures with some minor changes (like what Evil Mastermind mentioned about Hit Die). In regards to its setting, Scarlet Heroes makes repeated mentions to Red Tide, a setting sourcebook written by the same author several years back. A lot of the monsters and spells are in line with Red Tide's pseudo-Southeast Asian vibe, although it's not a dealbreaker if you plan on using it for your home setting (the majority of the book is not setting material). Libertad! fucked around with this message at 04:51 on Mar 24, 2014 |
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 04:44
|
|
|
I was reviewing it and it seems to me like it would be a blast for "Shared World" Let's Plays (kinda like the old Thieve's World books).. where each person runs their own character through solo adventures in the city. It got me building a city,, yet to be named, but I was using something like the ICONS city building rules, where areas would have traits that would offer a bonus to the rolls: The Bazaar: EVERYTHING HAS A PRICE... NOTHING IS ILLEGAL... BUT EVERYTHING IS TAXED The Bazaar is a free-trade district. Anything goes, from magical items (most of a... dubious nature) to mind-bending alchemical concoctions, to.. more dark cargos. The only rule is that everything you bring OUT of the district has to be declared and taxed. (of course, there's rumors that there are those who can smuggle items or things out of the Bazaar to avoid the greedy hands of the tax collectors, and some rent areas inside the Bazaar to partake of their acquired items of dubious legality. without having to leave the Bazaar. the current Boss of the Bazaar, Aelcor Three Fingers offers protection to the various merchants and sellers, for a price... freelance thugs and pickpockets who work the Bazaar tend to have wealthy, but short careers. The Harbor ROOFTOP HIGHWAY DISTRICT OF A THOUSAND TAVERNS CONTACT WITH FOREIGN EMPIRES The Harbor area teems with activity day and night, bringing in trade from foreign empires to send into the rest of the Empire. These warehouses stand packed edge to edge.. a canny and agile footpad could cross the entire Harbor district from one end to the other crossing from one rooftop to the next. Of course, so many buildings packed together so closely probably is a fire trap waiting to happen... but as long as the Harbor are taking in more and more goods, the city will never step in. It's said that a man seeking a tankard of ale and questionable company would never have to wait, as the taverns blaze with light all night long (A couple of the wealthier ones actually have a Lightstone instead of torches.. to take a wealthy tavern's Lightstone would instantly doom that tavern to second class status. Noble District THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF PLOTS GUARDS, GOLD, AND DANGER BEHIND EVERY WINDOW "YOU SHOULD KNOW YOUR PLACE...." Here, the various nobles of the city plot against each other.. they plot about things great (securing a greater portion of the trade going to the empire), and small (stealing one house Master's favored concubine, or even a particularly favored piece of real estate). Those plots seethe together, creating an area where the danger is more a hidden knife in the back then the brandished sword. It is said that every noble involved at one of the city's frequent balls has plots going against every other Noble attending... just in case it's necessary. The houses are ripe for the picking, if one can get past the guards and traps.. however, a thief would have two problems.. the District Guards are inclined to hassle any and everyone who is not in the livery of one of the Noble Houses (an attitude that the Nobles heartily encourage).. and if a thief takes too MUCH from a noble house and word gets out, the Nobles have been known to hire private bully-boys to teach the thief and any would-be future thieves a lesson. A long painful lesson that the thief would probably not survive. The Arena BLOOD, SWEAT, AND GOLD THE MORE EXOTIC, THE MORE ENTERTAINING THE CROWD'S ACCLAIM The Arena is a massive construction, featuring fighters, and styles from across the Empire and beyond. The Arena is not necessarily a gladiator pit (it also hosts athletic events and racing).. but the main draw is the fighting pits.. even though most fights are not to the death (generally, the rule is that unless both fighters or managers agree to it, the match is until surrender) they still gather crowds.. (bigger ones for death matches, of course). Some of the most wealthy families in the city stand as Sponsors to the arena teams, and scour the empire for exotic fighters and beasts to bring to the Arena. Every year, the Arena hosts the Fighting Man tournament, featuring the best fighters from the Arena season, and at least one spot each year is reserved for a resident of the city (the winner of a Grand Melee). What's left to do: Add a couple areas for Wizards/Clerics (the areas are heavy into Thief/Fighter so far), but if folks want to add to it, go right ahead.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 06:29
|
|
|
That's convenient, I actually just downloaded the Scarlet Heroes quick-start off of Drivethru on a lark when I went to update some of my pdfs. Of all the retroclones I've thumbed through I have to say this one looks the neatest so far. It says it's designed primarily for one-on-one gaming but honestly I think some of the ideas could easily be repurposed for more conventional party sizes. Something Evil Mastermind didn't mention that I think is a neat little touch is that if your character is ever in grave danger and you absolutely want a way out you can choose to Defy Danger. It says that it's up to the GM to decide when Defying Danger is permitted but explicitly states that it can always be used to escape from a dangerous fight or resist a failed saving throw (the example they use in the book is shaking off a ghoul's paralysis). When you Defy Danger you roll a 1d4 damage die and take the result, though it's treated just like all damage is in the game, i.e. a roll of 1 does no damage, a roll of 2-5 does 1 point, etc. If you're still standing after that then you've successfully defied danger...you pass the saving throw, you escape the death trap, you avoid certain doom, etc. If the damage would kill you then instead you remain alive at 1 hitpoint but you have to suffer the consequences of what you were trying to avoid. Every time you Defy Danger this way the damage die you roll goes up by one step, to a d6 and then a d8 all the way to d12, and it only goes back to d4 once the adventure is concluded (successfully or by the player going "gently caress it, I'm done"). There are some other nice touches as well...after every fight you can take a couple moments to patch and bind your wounds and catch your breath and you recover up to 2 hitpoints (which doesn't sound like much but remember that damage in this game works differently), so it's a bit like a 4E "short rest" which lets you keep pressing on for more adventure without having to worry so much about breaking off to head back to town and recuperate. Also I like that the setting is explicitly not just another medieval European pastiche and the quickstart straight-up says "yeah, it's a big ol' ethnic melting pot here" which the art actually reflects. Also the art isn't terrible, which is kind of a noteworthy thing when it comes to retroclones. It does seem like it's pretty dungeon-crawl oriented which I'm not sure I can call a downside exactly since I'm pretty sure that's the point, though it doesn't tremendously excite me but oh well. I don't know if the full rules go into any more detail or depth regarding stuff outside of crawling through gridmaps and fighting monsters for treasure, it'd be nice if it did, but honestly even if it's just a game for going down into murderholes and looting the place it's still more interesting than a lot of other games about that sort of thing have been.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 13:56
|
|
|
Kai Tave posted:It does seem like it's pretty dungeon-crawl oriented which I'm not sure I can call a downside exactly since I'm pretty sure that's the point, though it doesn't tremendously excite me but oh well. I don't know if the full rules go into any more detail or depth regarding stuff outside of crawling through gridmaps and fighting monsters for treasure, it'd be nice if it did, but honestly even if it's just a game for going down into murderholes and looting the place it's still more interesting than a lot of other games about that sort of thing have been.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 16:24
|
|
|
There's a bunch of city related stuff in the solo play section, I know someon on a RPG net had an AP/LP of them playing an investigator/thief.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 18:27
|
|
|
Unless someone already posted it, here's another useful list of D&D retroclones. It's by far the most comprehensive one I've seen yet.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2014 17:21
|
|
|
Libertad! posted:Unless someone already posted it, here's another useful list of D&D retroclones. It was but they are forwarding to this new page now. I always found it amusing that both dungeon world and 13th age are on this list. Also Barbarians of Lemuria which is only similar to D&D in the sense that you could pretend to be Conan in either of them? I wonder what category they'll put D&D Next in. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2014 18:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 5, 2024 18:19 |
|
|
Libertad! posted:Unless someone already posted it, here's another useful list of D&D retroclones. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2014 22:53
|
|