My Changes to the BX/OSE Thief Class

       The three most common classes I see mentioned for change is the Magic-User, Fighter, and Thief. I have discussed ways to balance out the first two, but I left the thief off the list because I honestly did not know what to do with them. They desperately seem like they need SOMETHING, but it is hard to place a finger on exactly what it is. In most games that I have run the parties do not even have a thief and seem to get by well enough. It was not until I really started to examine the thief and look at what the class had and did not have that I discovered how I was going to change them in the future. I was not going to change a single thing about the class. 

      The class is perfect just the way it is and is quite useful to a party, but not to the point that it is an absolute necessity (like the cleric imho). Is this purely a bait and switch article that tells me that everything is just dandy with the thief and to go about your day? No. To be completely honest the thing that ruins the thief more than anything is you. Yes. You. The Game Master, for convenience’s sake or lack of rules knowledge, often makes the thief useless. The thief is generally an amazing class when the rules are used correctly and as written. Let me give some examples.

      Your characters find a treasure chest that is locked in the game full of God knows what? Many GM’s I know (I am guilty here too) allow their players to search the chest for traps using their 1 in 6 chances on the D6. This seems to be incorrect. The party’s chance of finding traps is specifically for room traps, not treasure traps. Treasure traps seem to be the sole purview of the thief class. If you are allowing the party to use their room trap feature on treasure, you are hampering the usefulness of the thief, not the class. The chest is also locked, if you allow the players to just bust it open easily (and without risk), you are reducing the viability of the thief. If the party cannot open the chest and decides to take it with them and you do not use encumbrance, you’ve reduced the effectiveness of the thief. 

     Here is another example that I constantly get incorrect. Many GMs interpret the player’s ability of “Listen at Door” to be the same thing as “Hear Noise”. Words matter greatly when interpreting these rules and “Listen at Door” is specific. You can only use this to literally listen at a door, not hear monsters approaching, or in my opinion get specifics of what is behind the door. With “Hear Noise” the wording is much broader and can be used in a variety of situations. If you are giving all your non-human PCs a 2 in 6 chance to “Hear Noise” and not “Listen at Door” then you are harming the thief, it is not that the class is bad or needs correction.

     Another example is the Open Doors skill that all PCs have 1 in 6 chances, plus there STR modifier. This is specifically for stuck doors, not locked doors. In theory ALL doors in a dungeon are considered stuck, unless noted. I often do not go with that because to me it is a bit weird. But for the longest time I allowed this to open locked doors which completely undermines the point of the Pick Lock skill. The thief can allow a party to get through a locked door much earlier then intended. Many times, in a game there is a key that needs to be found to access certain parts of the dungeon. The thief can “hack” the dungeon and skip certain parts.

     One of the primary abilities that can come in useful for a thief is moving silently. Generally, I handle sneaking with the surprise rules. Any class can try, and sneak and the enemy have a base chance of 1 or 2 on a D6 to discover they are being approached. I then consider modifiers like armor. Plate for me adds 3 to the roll so on a 1-5 on a D6 they will be discovered. Is the guard distracted? Maybe reduce the number by 1 etc. If the thief makes their Move Silently roll, they are completely silent and there is no chance of detection. If they fail, they are still moving quietly and thus the monster has a base 1 or 2 on a D6. I have seen many GMs rule that a failed Move Silent roll is an automatic discovery, and, to me, this is wrong. This is not a wholly original idea, and while I disagree with some interpretations, I got this idea from http://web.fisher.cx/robert/rpg/dnd/thief.html. 

      The thief class does not need to be changed, you need to change how you GM the game to make them useful. To me the biggest enemy of the thief is not an ogre with a magic sword, it is a GM that does not allow them to fill their niche in the party. They are certainly an accessory class (they where not in the original rules), but they still are a great class, and many creative players can do a lot with them.

I run Old School Essentials weekly and post our games to YouTube, click HERE to see.

Like my work? Follow me on Facebook here.

Word of Wisdom from the Past – The Polyhedron Magazine #7

I started reading some of the old Polyhedron magazines and I am enjoying them quite a bit. I seem to like them more than Dragon or Dungeon Magazines. I really like their Living City articles and Rouges Gallery and find them useful. Reading through these lost tomes of yore you get a glimpse into the zeitgeist of the time in a way that is reasonably unfiltered. Many times, people question what people back in the day thought about X issue in the community. The response is usually, “They are still alive, ask them.” This has merit and is valuable, but not a complete story. Often time colors the past with rose-tinted glasses and memories change over time. Seeing these articles give us a clear understanding of the thought processes back in the day and the issues with the games that people were discussing. Here is a hint, it is the same stuff we discuss today. Apparently, the Thief class was always an issue and “fixing” it was always on the table as example. Below are two things I picked out of issue #7 that I thought were interesting and I wanted to share.

A person wrote into the “Dispel Confusion”, the Q&A column for Polyhedron, and asked about their created spell that healed at range. The reaction is stark and not even a bit nuanced, it is a bad idea. They go so far as to invoke the name of one of the creators, Gary, saying it is range cure is too powerful. They discuss it as an issue of balance, and this is the reason that Clerics get any armor is to be able to wade into the front lines and heal. Something of note too is in older editions you cannot move and cast, placing further limits on capability. I do not want this to turn into a 5e bash fest, as I do play 5e regularly, but is there a single heal that is not ranged now? I admit, I am not a 5e expert, though I have played it a lot. I am not trying to say, “See 5e is bad! You are bad for liking it,” but look at the changes to the thoughts of people in a relatively small amount of time. Changing rules like this change the focus of the game (not stating that is good or bad, just a given). When you change the healing mechanics (making range healing possible, using hit dice to heal, healing as a bonus action, etc) the core of the game changes with it. The game becomes less focused on the idea of survival in the face of imminent death, and more about grand champions boldly destroying foes. Am I stating anything new? No. Will people miss the bigger point and most likely argue in the comments about edition wars? Yes.

Next, was a piece for “Notes for the Dungeon Master”. In this article the writer, discusses an old topic in the community, “What do you do with a player when their character dies?” A big point of pride for many in the OSR/Old-School community seems to be when a character dies the player makes a new character and builds from level 1 again. I am generally for this, up to a point, and I agree with the article. Once the group gets its feet underneath it and starts to grow in levels this becomes silly. If the party is averaging 7^th level making a veteran player start over at level 1 seems silly. The article sets some ground rules and recommendations on how to handle this. The author tends to focus on levels, whereas I would focus on total XP instead. The article also recommends on how to possibly handle magic items and gear. I used the exact same system in my games before and it worked perfectly. I only mention this piece because I hear in the “meta” around the game online stories about how this was not even a thing “back in the day”. Death equaled reset always. It is the way the founders intended it. Etc. According to this, that is not the whole story.

The real focus of this piece for me is that even back in the day there was a plethora of ideas and ways of play, not one dogmatic “old-school” way of play. Odds are people in the comments will argue the merits of healing and starting PCs at level one, but there is not much I can do about that. Hell, odds are that people will comment without even reading the blog post. That is all for this issue. I am really enjoying reading these articles and I might write another of these if I find anymore gold.

I run Old School Essentials weekly and post our games to YouTube, click HERE to see.

Like my work? Follow me on Facebook here.

Killing Save or Die Mechanics

 Hello. My name is Ryan and I do not like save or die mechanics.

 

                I know the reason why they exist. That does not mean that I must like it. The game, in general, is dangerous enough without this mechanic, so why do we need it? Does this mean that I am abandoning the principles of old-school gaming and going to convert over to 5e? No. What it does mean is that I am going to steal other people’s good ideas on the subject and apply them to my own game. I do not want the threat of death to leave my games and player death should happen, but I prefer to mar and cripple my PCs over death. At times death is letting them off too easy.

                I saw an alternative rule that I am tending to lean towards that is still extremely deadly, but also not a binary result. When someone has a save or die mechanic (i.e. poison, death ray, etc) they take the creatures hit dice in damage. Example: the character is struck with a death ray from an Eye of Terror (Beholder). The character fails their save and would take 11d8 points of damage. Odds are the character will still die, but there is always the chance that the damage roll is low. In addition, if the character fails the save, takes damage and lives, they will have an appropriate permanent effect. In the example above I might have the death ray destroy part of the character’s health and they take 1d3 CON loss.

                You could have a character that fails a save against a medusa gaze and live. They then might have some calcification of the joints and they lose 10’ of movement and are just slower the rest of their career. That effect could in theory be removed with a Stone to Flesh spell which would in theory cure them if they were turned into a statue too. This also is the same with poison. A character can fail a save and take huge amounts of damage, but if Neutralize Poison is used, they instantly regain that hit point loss.

                Lastly, I use a Death & Dismemberment chart for my characters because again, I like to mar and injure the characters. I would skip this step though in the case of a save or die mechanic. If you hit zero, from a failed save, it is lights out. This adds another level of danger and still makes those save or die mechanics scary, but not cheap.

                I do not judge people who use the mechanic and like it. It is certainly a preference. I think it is a little more acceptable at lower levels, but as you put time into a character the thought of losing it to one bad die roll tends to sting more. Might just be me?

I run Old School Essentials weekly and post our games to YouTube, click HERE to see.

Like my work? Follow me on Facebook here.

Lessons On Using Roll20 - Tokens & Websites

           After I posted the first video on setting up a Roll20 game and using the character sheet, I had plenty of people wanting to know how I created tokens in my games. This video goes over token creation and implementation on Roll20. The video also covers some of the websites I use in my Barrowmaze/Stonehell game. These cover the Barrowmaze random tables page and the Old School Essentials SRD website. I hope people are enjoying and getting use out of the videos and if they have something they want to know about, please let me know in the comments.

If you are having problems viewing the video (happens with mobile users) here is a direct link to the YouTube channel. Click HERE.

Lesson #1 on Basics in Roll20 and the Character Sheet is HERE.

My Twitch channel for live videos is HERE.

Like my work? Follow me on Facebook here.

Why Rolling to Cast is a Bad Idea

               This article is really in response to Professor Dungeon Master and his video(s) where he professes to like random results for casting spells. Let me be clear here first, I love the Dungeon Craft YouTube videos and I love the FB group. I have stolen many of the Professor’s ideas and agree with him about 90% of the time, but I must break from him on this subject. This video also runs in complete opposition to the magic system that is used in Dungeon Crawl Classics. I love DCC’s style and I think their approach is wild. I like many of their adventures, but I will not be running any straight DCC anytime soon. The game, for me, is a bit too random. Though if that is your thing, more power to you.

DCCs art is rad.

                I brief synopsis of what I call “random” casting (or rolling to cast) is when a wizard/cleric casts a spell the player rolls a d20 to see if it is successful or not. Spells in this type of setting are not automatic (though I would argue that they are not automatic in classic D&D either). Depending on the d20 roll you can have about four outcomes. The spell goes off normally, the spell fails, the spell critically succeeds, the spell critically fails. The other bonus to this system is that spells can be cast an unlimited amount of times, but there is always a chance that the spell will backfire. I am sure that I am underselling the system a bit, but I think this is an accurate rough outline of how this system works.

Here is the video with his house rules. I agree with many, but not "Roll to Cast".

                Here are some of the reasons that I think this is not the best system to use. These opinions are coming from a classic D&D OSE/OSR perspective, so please keep that in mind.

1 – It is already tough being a low-level caster

                I have been running OSE/OSR now hardcore for about the last years and the biggest pile of dead heroes that I have is wizards. In my opinion they have the highest bar to cross as far as gaining levels, with the least going for them. They have bad ACs, they cannot use weapons, they have low hit points, and the list keeps going. The one thing they do have is a spell that possibly can turn the tide of battle once a day. Clerics are similar in that they have earn an entire level before even getting a spell and (odds are) that spell will be crucial in keeping another character alive. I just do not see the reason for having the one thing that makes both the classes unique fail or go catastrophically horrible. Why would people then really want to play these classes? The wizard sits back biding his moment and does little in the combats of the night. The Ogre rounds the corner, the party looks at towards the wizard and the wizard grins. He chants his magic as his eyes glow and casts Sleep. He then rolls a 1 and puts his entire party to Sleep and gets his head caved in by the Ogre. Fun times. They get one thing, let that thing be reliable.

2 – Unlimited casting is not a good option either

                I can hear the comments now, just allow the casters to cast unlimited spells with a risk and that solves everything. I am currently playing in a Microlite20 game where my character can cast not unlimited, but quite a few spells compared to his OSE counterpart. I can drop Sleep like it is nobody’s business. This makes fights boring for the other party members. Since I can cast it roughly 10 times, we can navigate most of a dungeon without many combats. I go out of my way to not cast it because I want other party members have a chance to shine. When you can cast that many spells at low level, even with the chance of failure, it can reduce the dramatic tension of a session a lot. Combat, Sleep, Bash, Next, Combat, Sleep, Bash, Next, Etc. Spells as a limited resource is a good thing and even plays into the fiction well. The wizard is tiring and cannot produce more magic, the cleric is desperate, and their faith is wavering. While I believe low-level casters, especially wizards, need a few more spells, unlimited spell casting just does not seem to fix this problem.

 

This supplement does have a critical system for magic if people are interested.

Conclusion

                As I said in the beginning, I do not want this to come off as an attack on Dungeon Craft. I love the channel and respect the Professor. This is just one professor sharing his opinion on the subject as well. I would highly encourage you to check out Dungeon Craft as a YouTube station and a FB book group, you will not regret it. I also want to state that I like DCC and Goodman games. I own several products. I encourage people to buy DCC, because even though I do not run it, I have farmed it for many ideas and their adventure modules are some of the best in print now.

This is one of my favorite of his videos and rings so true.

I have previous blog posts on my thoughts on Wizards and possible ways to improve them at low levels. Check them out HERE and HERE.

Like my work? Follow me on Facebook here.

A Better Initiative System

       I am a huge fan of side initiative and I don’t think a lot of people use it. As editions of D&D go by side based initiative has been slowly replaced with individual initiative. This isn’t some fly by night rule, it is an optional rule in 5e, and the standard rule in the oldest editions. Since this article might be reaching newer players who have never heard of side initiative, in brief, the sides of a combat roll against each other to see who goes first each round. I generally use a 1d6, but 1d10 was the standard in 2e and that worked well too.  Player should declare actions before the die is rolled, that way they can plan, but actions might not go according to plan. The group then rolls the die, the highest number goes first, and the players can figure out among themselves who will go and in whatever order they desire. In the case of a tie, both sides are going simultaneously. To me it is clean, efficient, and most importantly fun.

Reasons that I like side initiative:
1. Quick
2. Nothing to track
3. Creates comradery
4. Teamwork
5. It is dynamic

Quick
This might be controversial but, from my experience side initiative goes faster than any other method, which includes a 5e style where one roll is made for the whole combat. One person rolls a d6 and we move on, that takes about 5-10 seconds at most. If you do individual initiative each round it takes forever even with the most organized group. I used a countdown with that method, starting at 10 and working my way down. Players are constantly interrupting the count, or not speaking up when it is there turn, it is a mess. Second to that is roll once for initiative, keep that order. You still run into the issue of player not paying attention, or the GM accidentally going out of order, skipping a player, etc. Overall this all takes time, time I do not want to waste.

Nothing to track
I don’t like to write things down during game, maybe it is the sign of a bad DM, I am not sure? I do not like noting all the initiatives and then cycling through each round. This generally takes time, which noted above I do not like, and seems like accounting work that I do not need to do at the table. I have enough to track with hit points, spell effects, possible ticking clocks in a battle, I don’t need one more thing. Side initiative solves this problem and cuts down on things I need to track because it is either my turn or the players. 

Comradery
The main reason I switched to side initiative is I read that it creates some great group moments at the table, and this is extremely true. There are times in the game where a lot rides on whether the players win or lose initiative, this creates a great tension at the table. The players are all rooting for the person rolling that round, and if they succeed, there is a great cheer at the table and the group bonds a bit more. There have been more nail-biting rounds at my table since I made the switch then in a year of games in the old fashion initiative style.

Teamwork
This allows both players and adversaries to work in a coordinated fashion. It encourages teamwork among the players and their actions. Ok, I am going to hit them with X spell, then you rush in for the kill. Which normally this is at the whims of the initiative order. The players start to communicate more at the table and working together, which is generally what I am looking for in my games. You often see people’s roles at the table shine through a bit more, with the abilities of the particular characters making a difference in the right context. 

Dynamic
I am not a fan of static initiative because it lets the players have too much information in a fight. They might not worry about a particular opponent because they know they go before it in the initiative order. When you are rolling each round that might not happen. You might go, you might not. This also leads to the dreaded double round. When one side lose initiative the first round, then wins it the second. This creates a scenario where you can be attacked twice before you can strike back or move, but the opposite is true as well. This means you cannot count on anything as given, the best laid plans are subject to the tide of battle. 

It's go time

One of the only augments against side initiative that I have heard that is relatively valid is that high DEX characters get a bonus and this is not reflected. I am not concerned with this, mostly because DEX has many other uses already, this small loss is not that big a deal. DEX adds to certain attacks, it helps with AC, it makes you good at DEX checks, and depending on edition it helps with one of the most popular saves. It is a wonderful ability without the initiative bonus, and frankly it might bring back down out of the clouds a bit as the best stat. 

Say you want to spice it up a little, one of the things I like from 2e was the Critical Event Table from Combat & Tactics. This table had many different results for when the groups rolled a tied initiative value. This added some really fun results to the activities in battle. I have created a truncated form of the table below, and I added a few options of my own. Before rolling on the table, roll 1d6. On a 1-3, it favors the enemy and on a 4-6 it favors the PCs.

Battlefields are crazy

Critical Event Table

Roll 1d10 

1 – Armor Trouble
2 – Battlefield Damage
3 – Item Dropped
4 – Shoved Over
5 – Lucky Break
6 – Luck Opening
7 – Slip
8 – Weapon Trouble
9 – Combatants Switch
10 – Freak Occurrence 

Armor Trouble
One random person in the combat has an issue with their armor. If they have a shield, it is lost and goes 1d6 x 5’ in a random direction. If they do not have a shield, something is wrong with their armor, a plate is missing or a strap comes undone. The combatant has a -2 penalty to AC until an entire round is spent to fix it. Note: This can only effect people with armor, if this is an impossible scenario, ignore the Critical Event Table result.

Battlefield Damage
Somewhere on the battlefield something is damaged. A table might get broken, a statue is smashed, or the wall to a tunnel collapses. 

Item Dropped
One combatant loses a random, non-weapon item. It will land 1d6 x 5’ in a random direction.

Shoved
One combatant that is in melee combat range is shoved by an opponent. The shoved model moves 5’ back, and must make a saving throw or fall down.

Lucky Break
For the round, one random combatant gets a +4 AC and saving throw bonus.

Lucky Opening
For one round, one combatant gets a +4 bonus to attack rolls.

Slip
One random combatant that is in melee range, will slip and fall.

Weapon Problem
One random combatant has a weapon issue. If that combatant killed an opponent last round their weapon has become stuck, it will take an entire round to pull out. If not, the combatant throws the weapon unless they make a successful saving throw.

Combatants Switch
Two combatants in melee circle each other and switch places

Freak Occurrence
The DM determines an unusual situation on the battlefield. This will offer an advantage to one side, and a disadvantage to another. This could be a random monster appearing for a round, a magical effect that was not expected, or an enemy switching sides.

This is my thoughts on side initiative give it a try, if even for one night. I think a lot of DMs and players might enjoy it, and you can add the table in for a bit of flare.

I went ahead and created a Facebook group for the blog, if you are interested the link is here.

A Single, Small Cut - How I Run It

               This is less of a review and more of a “How do you use that?” I have run this Lamentations ofthe Flame Princess (LotFP) A Single, Small Cut by Michael Curtis somewhere between 20 – 30 times. As I have mentioned in other articles, I run a college tabletop club, and used this adventure to introduce dozen of young people too OSR style gaming, and RPGs in general. I usually run the scenario in a very particular way, and it acts to funnel the characters to the story. I run this solely as a horror one-shot, though one game’s outcome would have been an excellent start to a campaign. I do think that this is a great scenario for the one shot, or a Con Game. This encounter is quite deadly and could completely derail a campaign, so beware on that front. The vast majority of my games running this module end with the entire party dying, which is perfect for a horror one-shot. The rest of the article assumes that you are familiar with the A Single,Small Cut adventure. If you are not, buy it for $2 because it is worth it.

Great art on the cover and throughout the book.

                The first thing that I do is use a set of pre-generated characters that I found on the internet for the background of the story. I am not sure how I found these, and they are LotFP characters, from the Witch:The Road to Lindisfarne story game. I had played Witch in the past in its regular format, and was surprised to see these characters morphed into LotFP format. Having pre-generated characters is a huge plus in running one-shots because it speeds up the game and allows people to jump right into the action.

Another great game, but very different from LotFP.

                For setting, as with typical LotFP, I set the game right after the Second Crusade. This crusade in general was a mess, and the people returning home most likely did not feel good about the endeavor. This group of characters is on their way back to Sir Hayden’s lands in the northern parts of England. Brother Armond is Sir Hayden’s family personal confessor, Ham is a guide and general servant to the group, Berrick is Sir Hayden’s young, idealistic squire, and finally “Sir” Thorne is a mercenary who is being paid to get the group back to the north. While traveling back to the north, one of the party members takes ill to the point that they need to convalesce and can no longer travel. If you are short a player, don’t allow someone to pick Sir Hayden, and make it him. If you have a full set of players, I usually make it Baron Wharton. It then become his land they are traveling towards, Brother Armond is his confessor, and Sir Hayden is his loyal knight.

                Lucky for the group, Brother Armond was a novitiate from this area of Southern England and knows of a town, with a church (St. Gothard’s) that is very close. Once they get to the small town, everyone keeps the doors locked, and the streets are empty. I usually explain this as thousands of crusaders are coming home, and some are not so gentle with the townsfolk when they come through. They now have a healthy fear of outsiders, but the church stands out in the middle of the poor village. Brother Armond knows the parish priest, I usually call him Father Andrews, who was a jolly rotund man with a large appetite. This ties Brother Armond to the church, and when “Father Clement” says that the priest is away, some suspicion can start brewing.

"Father Clement" as played by Steve Buscemi

                Speaking of “Father Clement” I trying and play him as straight as possible, but have him have a lack of language, so to speak. Instead of calling it an altar, he will refer to it as a table or other faux pas. A smart player one time started talking to the “Father” in Latin, and insulting him, the “Father” just nodded and smiled, and gave himself away. I also always have “Father Clement” demand that weapons are left in the Narthex, because “weapons do not belong in a house of God”, or something of that sort. Most D&D parties are very wary of disarming, so this is when I bring in the ill party member and have them start moaning, even coughing up blood. This puts a slight ticking clock, and pressures them to comply. Usually I end up with a few players that will disarm, and a few that will “wait outside”, which is just as good. At some point someone conversing with “Father Clement” will notice the titular Single, Small Cut and this is generally about the time that I spring their trap. “Father Clement” shows his true colors as Clement the Strangler, and the four bandits in the Choir Loft start raining crossbow shots down on the party. At this point my games have varied quite a bit depending on several factors. I often have half the party in the Nave, unarmed and the other half outside of milling around the Narthex. Most of the time, someone runs upstairs, and I have the two bandits that are reloading attempt to stop them at the door. Many times people in the Nave look for makeshift weapons and attempt to keep Clement at bay. All of this builds towards the 4^th and 6^th rounds.

                The 4th round comes and I interrupt the action to emphasize the men bursting from the crypts. I usually describe them as wearing the same clothes as the bandits to let them know they are not just random townsfolk. I also emphasize that they see their comrades fighting the party, and do not care they are just booking it for the door. I am telegraphing heavily that something truly awful is about to happen. The 5th round combat is still ensuing, but a do mention that an odor of rot is starting to manifest all around. The 6th round I have The Corrector of Sins not just enter the scene, but burst onto the scene. It flings the altar almost out a window, it cracks the ground as it pulls itself up, and I try and describe its elephantine-like horror.

A close approximation from the movies. 

                If the party tries to directly engage this thing, odds are that is going to be the end for the party. Their best plan is to use missile weapons. I do have a temporary truce between all parties and the crossbowmen attack the beast. For the next two rounds, they will help before running or if Clement is killed, they will run immediately. I have yet to have a party not kill the beast, but often they are beat up and most likely lost someone. I will often have the ill member of the party, be it Sir Hayden or Baron Wharton, see the beast from their stretcher, and rise up to do battle in one final glorious charge. He is usually ripped into several pieces, but this lets the party know the threat is real. Once the Corrector of Sins is dead, I have it fall into its component pieces.

                At this point they should run, but I have yet to have a party not want to go and explore the crypts below. I am often running low on time so I hand wave the tactical approach and narrate the journey down into the crypts. Once they reach the ritual room, I add all sorts of flavor for a circumstance of “You should not touch this!” I talk about how there are demonic images, the room smells of sulfur, and there is a general bad vibe in the room. I contrast that with the size, beauty, and worth of the “gem”. Eventually curiosity wins the day and someone grabs the “gem” and the clapper goes off. It is often the end of the time slot so I narrate how the bodies reform, this time even larger due to the other dead from the fight, and the Corrector of Souls starts to come back down the stairs. Then the screen fades to black. A good horror ending, if I do say so myself. I have only one time had someone cautiously pick up the “gem” with a cloth, make the saving throw, then stuff the cloth in the bell to prevent it from sounding. I was shocked, but it was great. They realized in general what this was, and decided they needed to take the bell to a major city so that church officials come examine it. Once they got back upstairs they realized that the town assumed they murdered everyone in the chapel, and began to burn the church down, another ending I was happy with at the time.

Thanks Tony

                As I said earlier, this is a great little module, and it has the perfect pacing for a singular event. I could see this as a springboard to a bigger campaign, if they live. As with the above paragraph they could try and get the bell to someone in authority, and then begin a quest to find the other items that are out there in the world. The actual background for this little module that sadly most players never get to hear, is quality material. You could add these items to any OSR game and they would fit right in. I think I have prattled on long enough, so pick this up if you haven’t and give it a go the next time you are in a lurch to run a quick game.

Critically Failing as a DM aka Why I Do Not Want Backgrounds Anymore

                   I am going to start a new campaign for OSE in about a month and I have begun talking with some of the potential players. They are starting to have “ideas” for characters, and wanted to begin writing backgrounds. Normally this would not be a big deal, in fact, in the past I use to offer my students bonus XP for having a background. I had rules, that it could not be over 500 words, it could not use trite, overused troupes like; your parents were killed in a raid, you are an orphan, you are searching for a lost relative, or you are seeking vengeance on the man that harmed you in the past. The grammar had to be good, and it was to be treated as an assignment you would turn into a professor, but was completely optional.

Have to take a honest look at my mistakes.

                The last campaign was supposed to be a pure dungeon crawl sandbox (for reference Morgansfort), but it ended up being a sandbox that started to take a narrative life of its own. I started to add portions of the character’s backgrounds into the overall world, and I started to tie characters together. This actually led to me changing my style of campaign as things happened. I grew attached to the characters that the players had, and I liked the stories that were being produced. I found myself taking it easier on the characters, and even fudging a few things here and there, because I wanted the stories to continue in a certain way.

                As time progressed, the sandbox became less and less open, and I started to have a “vision” for how the game should go. The focus became my vision, and less about the player’s desire of the game. I even got so possessed with my own genius that I switched editions mid-campaign. I went from a BECMI to 2nd Edition because it had mechanics I wanted in the game. This through my game for a loop, and just as they were getting the BECMI rules down, I went and upset the applecart. This was generally hubris, and I did not see the cracks forming in the foundation when many of these changes happened. Eventually, I wrote an article about how I did not know how to end the campaign which can be found here. Little did I know, I would not get to that point in the game.

Should have kept it simple.

                The game collapsed with in-fighting and a general toxic feel to the game. I got the people so invested in their personal story, that they did not see themselves as part of a group anymore. I had tried to snake plotlines into the game that set the group at odds with one another, trusting that they would take the narrative option to form together and defeat evil. This did not happen, many paid lip service to the party, while plotting the doom of other PCs. The game ended when players got so upset over each other’s actions, that they either tried to get themselves killed to leave the game, or try to kill other players. It was a mess, and an absolute failure as a DM. When the campaign was simply about going into dungeons and getting treasure it was fine, but eight players seeing themselves as the main protagonist in a larger narrative ruined the game, and I fed that notion.

Actual picture of my campaign.

                With DM’ing, as with most things in life, it is important to look at your failures as well as your successes. I ran half a year’s campaign that was prosperous and focused, then I changed the focus mid-stream, assuming I was amazing enough to counter ANYTHING that could come up and I was wrong. I allowed players to get far to invested in their characters, to the point that they took things personally. I allowed some toxic behavior at the table, assuming that I could mitigate it with time. I thought myself immune to the mistakes a younger DM could make, and in all my advance techniques forgot about some of the basics. Keep the game focused. Keep the game understandable. Correct toxic behavior immediately and firmly. Let the player’s decisions matter. Remember it is just a game.

                Moving forward I am going to focus on getting back to the basics, literally. I will be using B2 Keep on the Borderland to introduce a new group of students to the wonderful world of D&D. First thing first, no backgrounds. I actually want less investment in the characters, because the characters are disposable. We will forge the narrative of the characters as we go. Also, they will likely die, but the group will go on. Emphasizing the success of the group will be the most important feature. Keep the sandbox an actual sandbox and allow the players to dictate what direction the game is going to go in. Do not switch the game mechanics mid-stream. That does not mean I cannot house rule or modify, but the core mechanics should not change. Do not get cocky and realize that you might need to re-examine the campaign at regular intervals to see what is going on and make sure that you are on the path that is good for everyone. No “world-ending” events, play should consist of a local area, and a localized threat.

Going back to the beginning.

                It is easy to write and discuss the victories of you DM’ing career, it is actually quite hard to take a look and realize that you did not do as well as you could have done. It would be easy to turn this on the players and say that they did not do well, or they made certain decisions that drove the game in certain directions, but at the end of the day the buck stops with me. So I made some mistakes, I have hopefully learned from them. In my second year running the school campaign I will do better.

               

EDIT: This article proved to be very popular. I went ahead and created a Facebook group for the blog, if you are interested the link is here. 

The Tomb That Annihilated Chult

                I recently finished playing in an eight month campaign of Tomb of Annihilation. This is not my first foray into 5e, as I have played through Curse of Strahd and Into the Abyss over the past few years. I’ve played all of these with the same group of friends, most I have been playing D&D with for the past 30 years. As we went through the campaign I noted several interesting factors about this particular campaign, that make it great and also some areas where it fell flat. I thought I would share some of those today. I believe that I have a unique perspective in that I generally run older versions of (A)D&D and have a tendency to play in 5e campaigns. I believe that the creators were trying to get back to an older style of play, in the classic dungeon delve with this module. Did they succeed? We’ll see.

The demon heads, you have to admire his attention to branding.

                My biggest issue with the module is also its greatest asset which is delightfully paradoxical. Chult is a spectacular character. The environment itself is an actual character in the story. This is like other works of fiction, the movie Event Horizon springs to mind or the comic Sin City. Chult is a place that is begging you to explore it and find all the interesting details that come out of it. They drop plentiful amounts of plot threads in the port that will take you all over the country completing all sorts of interesting things…..or so I would be brought to believe. I never got to see 95% of Chult because I played the plotline and did what was called for in the game.

I want to explore all of it.

                The premise of the adventure is a ticking clock. Your characters figure out that people around the world are dying do to a mysterious plague and it is your job to stop it as fast as possible because lives are on the line. In our case we were hired by a lovely woman in Waterdeep to rescue her, before the illness overtakes her. We took this call to action very seriously. We focused in on that plot thread with laser precision, and did not let up off that trail. We knew that she did not have much time, and we tracked the number of days it took us in game to complete the quest, it was 43. We plowed through the jungle on a quest to save the world. This means we missed out on the rich tapestry that was Chult. I’m still curious about the pirates, I still want to know about the great Naga, I want to spend more time at the Heart of Ubtao, and most likely countless others we did not hear about or forgot.

Ubtao building Mezro

                The biggest dip in excitement for our group was actually getting into the Tomb itself. We were able to navigate it with relative ease (except that damn tile room). The final fight was challenging, but I believe that was because our GM did not allow any form of rest for the final 6+ encounters, but we rationed our abilities well and were about tapped out when the module was tapped out. We managed with a party of three, and some NPCs, to navigate the entire adventure death free. It was certainly the most deadly adventure so far, but far from the meat grinders of yore.

                My advice if you are planning to run this adventure is to slow the ticking clock, or get rid of it entirely. This way your characters have the ability to explore the lands of Chult and see all the cool things that are in this book. Do not let it happen like it did to our party and the only thing the Tomb actually annihilated was Chult itself.

A War Over Battles

Mass combats tend to be a sticking point for most table top games. A percentage of people want the gritty detail and moving the units around the board, but many others find this level of detail boring. I love wargaming, but I do not want it mixed in with my role-playing games. I am more concerned with what the characters are doing in the battle and how they are making a difference. I think the Battle of Helms Deep in the LotR movie is a great example of how a battle can go. The battle is happening, and we get a glimpse of it from a macro view, but most of the time it is the heroes trying to handle different situations that are arising in the battle. This is what I am trying to recreate with these rules; something quick and easy for the GM and players to use and which creates a type of narrative for the battle. 

RPG's roots is a wargame.

Battle Rules

      First, we need to determine the overall tide of battle and how the armies as a whole are operating. Much of this is going to be GM’s fiat, but I find that a simple roll with a few modifiers would do in this circumstance. We will roll a check each Battle Turn, which, for our purposes, is 30 minutes of combat. Each side in the battle rolls a D20 and adds any of the applicable modifiers from below. The side with the highest total scores a Victory Point. At that point, a Push/Pull mechanic ensues. Each side is trying to accumulate three Victory Points to achieve a Total Victory in the battle. If the losing side scores a Victory Point, it first removes points from the opposition, before gaining its own Victory Points. In the case of a tied number, no points are scored by either side.

Modifiers

·         +2 Currently Winning the Battle (Has the most Victory Points)

·         +1 Won the Last Battle Round

·         +1 Larger Forces

·         -3 to +3 Army Leader’s Competency (DM determined)

·         +1 to +3 for Superior Magical Ability

·         +1 to +3 for Superior Troops

·         +1 to +3 for Superior Equipment

·         +1 for each Fortified Position or Terrain Piece

·         +1 for Defeating an Enemy Champion in previous Battle Turn

·         -1 allied Champion refused a FIGHT

·         -5 Commander Killed

·         DM’s Discretion for any other factor

Note: If one side’s battle roll is 10 more than the opponent, two Victory Points are scored.


Example: Army A has two Victory Points and is one Victory Point away from a Total Victory. Army B is currently losing quite badly. Both armies total their modifiers for the round and roll a D20. Army A, with modifiers, rolls a 15, while Army B, with modifiers, scores a 17. This now changes the Victory Points. Army A has 1 Victory Point, and Army B is still losing, but they have pulled themselves back from the edge of Total Victory. Army A now needs to win two more rounds in a row to win, and Army B needs to win 4 more rounds in a row to win. 

Optional Rules

The Curve - Some might find the randomness of a D20 too much for their taste. I might recommend using the same modifiers, but rolling 3D6 instead. This should give more of a Bell Curve result, and less variation.

Overwhelming Forces – If an army is more than double the numbers of an opposing force, roll 2D20 and take the best result for the Battle Roll. If using the optional rule, The Curve, roll 4D6 and take the best three numbers.

Variable Morale – Using the first to 3 Victory Point rule is good for a standard battle, but different army's morale/training can vary. You can have a harden force of knights defending their final keep, or you can have an unruly mob of goblins and kobolds that are as likely to fight themselves as the enemy. To reflect this, you can set different break points for the armies. The knights might fight until the enemy gets four Victory Points, maybe even five. The hoard army might break after just one or two victory points against them. This is as always up to GMs discretion.

An attempt at mass battle rules.

Characters in Battle

This is what most players want to know about in a battle: what is my character doing? I have modified an older Legend of the Five Rings Battle System to be reasonably system neutral. It will allow each character, or small groups of characters to act on the battlefield, make a reputation for themselves, and possibly help sway the battle. I am hoping the combined two systems will make something that is both satisfying for the players and GM and reasonably quick to complete.

Refer to the Character Battle Chart (below) when examining these rules. Each Battle Turn a player, or group of players, decides how engaged they will be. They will have 5 options Reserves, Disengaged, Engaged, Heavily Engaged, or Retire from the Field. Depending on how well the character’s army is performing, and their engagement status, will determine the row that will be rolled on. The character will then roll a D20 and add his Base Attack Bonus (Do not include pluses for weapons or any attribute) this will determine the row that the character is on this Battle Turn. Where the row and column meet is the result for that character. This can also be done as a group. Each player will roll and take the best result, but for each additional character, shift the row down one step. The more people in a group, the more likely people will take damage, and the less Reputation to go around. When looking at the result, you have how much damage your character takes from the fight, calculated in dice. You also have how much reputation is earned for their actions on the field. Lastly, you could hit a special event, FIGHT or Heroic Gambit, which is expanded upon below. Players may resolve their rolls in any order they choose.

Optional Rule 

Wizard/Arcane Spellcasters -  Characters may expend a spell slot to add the level of the spell to their Base Attack Bonus for the Battle Turn. Dropping Fireballs on the battlefield is helpful, but it also attracts a lot of attention.

Character Battle Chart PDF Link

Damage and Reputation

The damage is purposely vague so that the GM can determine what is best for their game. If you are using low level characters, you might want to use a d4, higher level characters possibly a d8 or even a d10. Armor should be taken into account. I advise, if using an Ascending Armor Class System, each point above 10 should reduce the damage by 1 point. If using a Descending Armor Class System, each point below 9 should reduce the damage by 1 point. Damage can never be reduced below 1 point of damage. In a battle, you are going to get fatigued and banged up. Groups of characters suffer full damage dice to each character in the group. At the start of any round, a character may choose to Retire from the Field, which effectively removes them from the rest of the battle.

Reputation is there for the GMs to use as a measure of the people in both armies seeing the actions of the players. If the characters roll a space that does not have a special event, have the player/s tell you what they are doing to earn that reputation. If the character lands on a space that has a special event, the reputation should be tied to that event. Reputation does not have a tangible mechanic tied to it, but I would encourage the GM to award special accommodations from the General of the Army, or maybe the king themselves for large amounts of reputation earned on the battlefield. You could tie some form of XP to the reputation for the battle, maybe 10 – 50 XP per point depending on the experience curve of your game. Reputation in a battle may never go below zero. If a group of characters gains Reputation, the Reputation is split among them, with remainders dropping off. If a character chooses to Retire from the Field, they lose half the Reputation they gained in the battle and the GM can rule that this causes a dip in morale. This should be especially true with characters that have already gained high levels of Reputation in the battle as their leaving will be noticed.

Another attempt at creating mass battle rules.

Special Events

                FIGHT occurs when two or more champions from both sides of the battle find each other and clash. The GM is encouraged to come up with a few champions for the battle before the session. These champions should range in ability and class, and could even be war machines or monsters. The player characters may turn down the FIGHT, but it will result in a -1 on the Battle Roll next round. The character/s will lose all Reputation gained up to that point, and is forced to Reserves the following Battle Round. I cannot stress enough that these should be quick engagement. If you are breaking out the battle mat, you might be taking it too far. It seems thematically interesting to have like type FIGHT like type. An example of what I mean is a Wizard Duel, or two Rival Clerics squaring off in a battle to see whose god is mightier. If the characters are acting in a group, the GM can have multiple combatants, or one larger combatant versus the group. XP and items should be awarded to the characters for defeating the enemy champions.

                Heroic Gambits are interesting things that happen on the battlefield that give the players a moment to shine. Each will have its own premise, and outcome. All are optional and characters can refuse to attempt them. Below I have given some examples for the GM to pick from, but feel free to make up your own that fit your scenario, genre, and gaming group. Many of these are easily re-skinned into any RPG.

The Banner Has Fallen

Your character has the opportunity to pick up the fallen war banner. While he has the banner he gets +1 reputation each turn, but has a -1 to his Character Battle Chart roll each turn.

Come With Me

The Army’s commander has lost/separated from their honor guard. They want your character to join them in the battle. While you are with the commander, they (GM) gets to determine your level of engagement. You will receive a +1 Reputation each Battle Round you are with them, and other possible in game rewards.

Have Our Battle In The Shade

Enemy arrows are blotting out the sun and the character has found a route deep into enemy lines to strike at the archers. It is a highly dangerous opportunity. If the characters choose to attack the archers, they suffer double dice damage this round, but receive double the Reputation for fighting all the way to the archers. The next round, the character is automatically Highly Engaged. If still alive at the end of that round, the archers are defeated and the enemy has a permanent -1 on the Battle Roll.

WIZARD!

An opening in the lines has revealed a route to an enemy spellcaster. Removing the spellcaster would be a great boon for the character’s army. If the character chooses to attack the spellcaster, have them make an appropriate saving throw, or take triple damage dice that round, making it to the spellcaster but gain double the Reputation. The next round they are automatically Highly Engaged, an if still alive at the end of that turn the enemy has a permanent -1 to the Battle Roll, and the character/s gain a magic item.

Here And No Further

The character is ordered to hold this position, the character may not change your Engagement at the start of next turn. Roll a Basic Attack Bonus roll on a 15+ add two additional Reputation, 20+ add four additional Reputation, 25+ add six additional Reputation.

Break On Through To The Other Side

Your character is ordered to break through the enemy lines. Next round the character has -3 to his Character Battle Chart, but gains three additional Reputation.

The Perfect Shot

The character has a perfect shot at an enemy champion. Provided the character has a ranged weapon, allow them to make a ranged attack. If successful, count it as defeating an enemy champion.

Lure The Hoard

The character has been given an order to pull the enemy line out of position in order to make a gap. Next round your character is considered to be Heavily Engaged and gains two additional Reputation.

A Savior Unto Thee

Your character sees an ally fall on the battlefield and you manage to make it to them. No matter how grievous an injury, the character manages to stabilize the ally. For the next two rounds the character is considered Heavily Engaged as they battle their way with the ally back behind friendly lines. The character receives an additional two Reputation each Battle Turn, and the GM is encouraged to reward the character for their effort.

Help In The Unlikeliest Place

Your character sees a wounded enemy calling out for help. The character can choose to ignore the plea, and will not suffer for it. If the character chooses to help, follow the rules above, except no additional Reputation is gained. At the end of the battle it is encourage that the GM reward the player with a new retainer with increased loyalty.

Where’s Sarge?

Your character is now the highest ranking person in his area. The character gains 1D3+2 warriors to lead for the rest of the battle. While these warriors are alive and with the character, they gain 1 extra Reputation per Battle Turn.

Battle Fury

The character is struck with a rush of energy from the battle. They can choose to heal two damage dice of damage or have a +2 to the next Character Battle Chart roll.

Magical Gift

An allied spellcaster has cast a beneficial spell on the character. The GM will determine the effects.

Capture The Flag

Your character sees an opportunity to capture the enemy’s battle standard. Once your character has the banner they may only move one step towards the reserves every turn. This draws plenty of enemy attention and your character is at a -4 to their Character Battle Chart Roll until the banner is secured in the allied reserves. Each turn you spend with the banner you gain three additional Reputation, upon getting the standard into reserves it counts the next round as a champion defeated for the enemy.

That Was Close

An ally of the character moves them out of the way to avoid damage. For this round the character does not suffer damage dice. The character possibly owes a favor to the ally in the future.

Support The Engineers

Your character has been asked to defend a group of military engineers trying to fortify a forward position. Your character cannot change his engagement status for the next two Battle Turns, and you must subtract -1 from the Character Battle Chart. If the character is alive at the end of two Battle Turns, your side gains a Fortified Position Advantage.

SAPPERS!

Your character is needed to escort a unit of sappers to an enemy fortification. Your character cannot change his engagement status for the next two Battle Turns, and you must subtract -1 from the Character Battle Chart. If the character is alive at the end of two Battle Turns, your enemy loses a Fortified Position Advantage.

Be Prepared to Dig Two Graves

Your character sees an ally cut down by a champion from the enemy army. The ally has no chance to be saved, but your character can seek revenge. The character may spend the rest of the entire battle seeking revenge. At the end of each Battle Turn, your character may choose to move horizontally or vertically on the Character Battle Chart to an entry that has a FIGHT in order to defeat the champion.

An Army Which Carries The Ark Before It Is Invincible (Cleric/Divine Only)
Your character has a relic of their faith, and is escorting it to the Battlefield. As long as the character is on the field with the relic, they must be Engaged or Heavily Engaged. While on the field the relic inspires the character’s allies and there morale increases, thus it will take one additional Victory Point to defeat the army. In a standard battle this will be four victory points. While the relic is on the battlefield, it is the target of enemy aggression and the character/s must roll their Character Battle Roll at a -3 penalty. The character can at the start of any Battle Turn move into reserves and safely store the relic away, and all associated bonuses are removed. If the character dies/goes down, the enemy recovers the relic, and the associated bonus is removed from the allies and granted to the opponents. A character completing this action gets an additional Reputation each Battle Turn. If the character loses the relic, the character loses all Reputation and cannot gain any until the relic is recovered. This Gambit can only be attempted once per battle.

I Aim To Misbehave (Thief/Rouge Only)

The character comes up with a plan that is so unusual, it just might work. Or it could completely blow up in their face. The character rounds up a group of Special Forces and disappears into the chaos of the battle. The character will not participate in the next Battle Roll as they are sneaking and getting into the perfect position. The following round they are automatically considered Heavily Engaged. The character will then roll a D8 and get a result. The GM will roll a D3, and subtract that from the result. If the number is positive, the plan went off and that number is added to the Battle Roll next turn. If the result is negative, the plan went south and the number is subtracted from the Battle Roll next turn. This Gambit can only be attempted once per battle. If multiple Thief/Rouges attempt the mission, roll multiple D8s and take the best result. There is no additional Reputation, because the characters are so stealthy they were unnoticed.

Cut The Head From The Serpent

The enemy general is exposed and your character has an opportunity to rush in and attack. This choice should be reserved for at least several Turns into the battle. The general will be guarded by his honor guard, and the GM is encouraged to create an appropriate level challenge for this combat. If the character/s win, the enemy army suffers a permanent -5 to Battle Rolls, the character's allied army immediately earn one Victory Point, and the character gets triple the Reputation.

These rules owe a lot to this book.

I hope people try these rules and that they work out well. Thanks for reading and if you liked this please remember to follow and share.

If you are interested in Legends of the Five Rings click HERE.

Like my work? Follow me on Facebook here. I recently added a Donations Button for people who want to support the blog with a one-time donation. For those not satisfied with a one-time donation, please consider joining my Patreon. The button is above too.