Gnolls, Trolls & Mysterious Holes

This weekend we had the second session of our Ravenloft/Gestalt mini-campaign and something occurred which really blind-sided me - the way in which I use the rules, influences how my players set about solving problems. I’m running a module called The Created in which a small town is taken over by a puppet maker and his marionette minions. In the module, the PC’s are quite likely to be taken over and turned into marionettes themselves, which in fact happened in our game. At some point after this, the PC’s have an encounter with a stray dog, which is two size categories larger than them at this point. This is a pretty tough encounter, since because of their small size, even if the PC’s had weapons (they were unarmed after being turned) the only weapons they could carry would do minimal damage at best. So the best way to handle this situation? Drop to the ground and go limp - basically, be a doll. The dog sniffs for a few moments and then wanders off. It’s a simple solution that requires no rolling, just a little bit of thought. However, my players attempted to run away, which failed, and then tried to fight the dog off, which wasn’t going too well.

Is this a failure on my players part? No. My players are intelligent people and can think on their feet - the problem is the rules (d20 in this case - my eternal whipping boy) which support a certain style of play, namely, if you run into a problem, look on your character sheet until you find a skill that you can roll to get you out of the situation. This is where skill-based systems run into problems. They encourage players to think only in terms of what’s on their character sheets and distract them from solving the problem at hand.

d20 is not fully to blame in this situation because the rules are simply a tool. Like any tool, if used poorly, for the wrong task, the results can be, and usually are, slipshod. So I am also to blame for the way my players react to situations. By including skill roll after skill roll, eventually anybody is going to “trained” to work only with what is given to them. This is the importance of including riddles, tricks, traps, etc. with no obvious solution (i.e. no associated skill roll) so that the players are forced, at least every now and then, to think past an encounter, rather than roll past it.

I just found Encounter Criticaloff of Jeff’s Gameblog. It’s from two guys who apparently (if you read through the booklet) couldn’t decided whether to make a space RPG or fantasy RPG so they just smushed all their ideas together and called it a day. Imagine a game where you can have a group that consisted of a Robodroid, a Dwarf, a Klingon, an Amazon and a Wookie. The Wookie is shooting a shotgun, the Klingon is blasting people with a phaser and the dwarf is cracking skulls with his battleaxe. Also imagine the possibilities of combining any of those races in any bizarre combo you can think of….A RoboWookie, a Klingon/Elf, an Amazon/Dwarf. It gets pretty crazy. Now throw in classes like the standard Warrior, Warlock and Criminal, but also Psi Witch, Doxie, or Pioneer. Now add in authors who not only make no attempt to make any of it make sense, but encourage a ridiculous (and hysterical) brand of controlled chaotic hilarity. I was thinking of making some quick characters and running the group through a quick game this Saturday, and everyone seems to be on board. I’m not going to re-trod over material that’s already been covered (better) elsewhere, so I’ll just send you on over to Jeff’s Blog. I will say, this game has made me want to play AD&D again.

Elections have just been held in Martira Bay for the new Mayor, the previous Mayor having died from what appeared to be a weak heart. The candidates were close through the entire race, but winning by just over half the votes was one Tanislov Draczynski, a young and inexperienced politician. His vitality and fresh, progressive ideas won him many of the votes - especially among non-humans.

He is not without his detractors, however. He is from the Labor Party (you know, like Tony Blair) and so is very popular with the dockworkers and ship captains - working men and women. But he is seeking to increase taxes for the rich significantly and so has won him many enemies with the elite of Martira Bay (of which there are many).

For looks, think Simon from Firefly. Possibly a Dhampir (Denizens of Dread).

We started this session where we left off - in the care of some Duergar traders. I really wanted this to be an interesting encounter, but nothing in it really spoke to the players Beliefs, so I we mostly got through it and moved on. The players healed and towards the end of their healing, started learning some new skills - they each learned the Crossbow, Valatar learned Martial Arts and Nefryn learned Two-Weapon Fighting Training. They learned from the leader, a Duergar named Gilnax, that Menzoberranzan’s sister city, Ched Nassad, had been utterly destroyed. Though by who and how it is unknown. At this point, it was time for a Lifestyle Maintenance check. They both failed this roll and are consequently Taxed 1 die, bringing them both back down to 0 on that.

At this point we moved on - the two headed back to Menzoberranzen and revenge! On the way, however, they met up with a Greater Imp named Thraxis who - they would soon find out - was summoned by one Yasaryll Torana, the sister of Malagerd Torana. Thraxis asked the two to somehow release him from his servitude so that he might spread chaos throughout the Underdark, in exchange, he would offer some knowledge he has concerning the Clerics of Lolth and the destruction of Ched Nassad. The players took the bait and decided to visit Yasaryll in her cave outside of Menzoberranzen. It was soon discovered that she had been all but declared an outcast by her family for choosing the way of magic rather than divine pursuits. The fact that these two were the ones who killed her brother (naked, and easily) was something that amused her greatly. She decided that if they could convince her of their skill at fighting, that she would release the demon (after all, the demon would be free to attack her at that point). Yasaryll narrowly won this Duel of Wits (with only 2 left on her Body of Argument.) She compromised by trying to use her Persuasion to obtain the knowledge from Thraxis - which she succeeded. They discovered that the Priestesses of Lolth are no longer able to commune with their deity, their prayers are going unanswered.

This is pretty much where we left off. And we are switching gears next session - M.C. is going to run his first d20 campaign, a published adventure called Bad Light. We’ll still keep running this Burning Wheel campaign, since we’re all having fun with it, but the format is changing, we’re switching to Play By Post on Myth-Weavers and the campaign can be followed there. I’ll post a link to the game once I have it up and running.

I’ve been digging through my PDF of Unearthed Arcana lately looking for various ways to beef up my upcoming, heavily modified, d20 campaign. UA has now become my new favorite book. There is a variant in it that does away with hit points and uses a wound mechanic very similar to Burning Wheel. This has the great effect of rendering characters ineffective in combat long before they have a chance to get themselves killed. I’ll also be using the Defense Bonus variant so that the characters aren’t forced to walk around with armor in an early 19th century setting.

I was actually hoping to find a magic system in there that would suit me - or at least garner ideas for my own, but nothing really struck me as quick and easy as mine. I’m also slipping Action Points into my system, but rather than adding to an existing d20 roll, I’ll just have them allow you to re-roll. Otherwise I just don’t see the utility of them. You’d have to almost make it for them to be effective and I’d rather they be more effective than that. Especially since I won’t be giving them out as often as is suggested in the book - players need to play their character traits to earn them.

I’d like to start our setup for this campaign by laying out a few guidelines, answering a few questions and establishing a few facts. First off, characters:

Characters

Characters will be Gestalt characters, starting off at around 4th-5th level; the setting is a big, Victorian city, so Druids and Rangers really wouldn’t fit well, as classes go. Barbarians are a bit of a stretch, too, but I think we can make room for them. Weapons should generally be light and/or easily concealed (knives, clubs, rapiers, etc.) and I think I may use the Defense Bonus variant from Unearthed Arcana rather than have any armor at all - it just feels more right. I’d like to see an emphasis on using your skills and noggin’s to combat your enemies rather than weapons all the time (not to say that there won’t be combat, but just that it should be a last resort). Character creation will be with a modified Point Buy system - I’m going to give you a range of numbers (right now I’m thinking 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11) which you can assign as you please, adjusting them up or down as you see fit (increasing one stat requires a similar decrease in another). Anyone wishing to play a half-orc should talk to me, Ravenloft has a different but analogous race that fits that bill. Instead of skills, you will choose a number of Non-Weapon Proficiencies equal to your level + your Intelligence Modifier - these can be just about anything (including current skills) Diplomacy, Etiquette, Haggling, Climbing, Woodcarving - these represent important skills to your character and can be rolled against with a standard Ability Check. You will also choose 3 Traits/Flaws for your character, using these in play to create difficult situations for your character will earn you Fate Points which can be used to re-roll any d20 roll. Example Traits/Flaws: Greedy, Clumsy, Charismatic, Tidy, Vain, Ambitious, Stubborn, etc. Finally, you will also choose a Imp which will be following you around, bonded to serve you in penance for its crimes. You can name it and, if you want, determine what crime it committed. I think what we’ll do with these is, we choose them, but someone else plays it. So, for example, I will play M.C.’s Imp, M.E. will play my Imp and M.C. will play M.E.’s Imp. They’ll be ornery and pretty much cause chaos whenever they feel they can get away with it. Oh, and one last thing: everyone should write a secret for their character - something they know, something they’ve done, whatever, just don’t reveal it to anyone else. Secrets will be revealed whenever you wish, during play. I’d like to hold off on character creation for this campaign until we’re al able to sit down together and make characters at the same time.

Setting

Think “From Hell” I’m steering away from the steampunk influence, since A. I’m not really familiar with it and B. It just wasn’t fitting the mood. Martira Bay itself is a large port city on the North Western coast of Ravenloft - heavy trade city, boundless opportunity for corruption; grimy, gritty, potential for evil lurking around every corner. You belong to a secret society known as the White Rose Society. On the surface it is a charitable organization, holding auctions and fund-raising banquets that attract most of the cities well-to-do citizens hoping to gain status and reputation among the cities elite. Most of the funds, however, are funneled into the societies hidden side: the protection of Martira Bay’s citizens from the forces of evil. The society was founded by a mysterious former adventurer named Lord Faltron. It is said he is still living and moves about the society headquarters at his will, though no one knows who he is. The need for a society such as this was necessitated by the close proximity of Necropolis, the City of Undead. The society has had its hands full of late dealing with the problem of a sudden influx of demons & devils.

{note: normally, Ravenloft is closed off from the outer planes where demons and devils exist - sometimes they can get through to this plane, but not often. As such, the past few months have been spent learning about these new creatures and discovering what they’re about, and how they’re getting here.}

Gameplay

Since we’re playing both sides of the conflict, I’d like to establish some kind of ground rules so that things don’t spiral into chaos. I almost feel like it’s necessary to to keep each character separated and have the other two non-players co-GM for the entirety of that players scene. I’ve been considering working in something similar to what Burning Empires uses called Scene Economy. I don’t own BE so I that causes problems, but from what I’ve heard, you are given a certain amount of certain types of scenes that you can introduce in a given game session. So for example each player has a Fight scene that they can enact whenever they want. But now that I think about this, I wonder if there might be too much toe-stepping if we do it this way. Three DM’s all working with the same clay? I’m not so sure about this. The alternative is to just run the game as if there were two active groups, I make encounters for the good guys, I make encounters for the bad guys and eventually the twain shall meet. I don’t know, I’ll wait on this one and see what sounds best.

As far as monsters and the feel of this campaign: I really want lots of intelligent monsters, monsters that won’t wade into combat, who’ll try to out-think you or bargain with you in hopes of scoring a deal rather than risk putting themselves in danger. I definitely see my devils and demons this way - they’re here to stay and they don’t want to be sent back to the outer planes. Also, you guys asked for it, and this is in line with the intelligent monsters, I want lots of mystery to this campaign, mystery and intrigue all around you.

Me and the group got talking the other night after our Killer Bunnies game about what we want to do after our Burning Wheel session ends (or we get bored of it). I had been tossing several ideas around and getting suggestions from them - basically we need something to fill in our time between when the BW campaign ends and when we get D&D 4th edition. What I’ve cemented together from all the suggestions is a bit of a hodge-podge of ideas. M.E. has wanted to try out Gestalt characters for quite some time now so I think we’ll give that a spin to see how that works - it’s actually a good time to do that, since there are only the 3 of us and that’s kind of what the Gestalt rules were made for.

[Note: the Gestalt rules can be found in Unearthed Arcana for 3rd edition and basically is like multi-classing, only you start with 2 classes and each time you level you go up a level in both classes.]

I also think we’ll try out my “mish-mash” system (which I’m re-dubbing, the Bastard Son system) as well as throwing in my Alternate Spellcasting rules (which I like, though they may ned some tweaking in this new system). Everyone is also REALLY on board for trying to “play both sides” which I’m really stoked about - it’ll be a challenge, but I think it’ll make for some exciting play. As to the setting, we started up an online Play By Post game a while back that never went anywhere - I’d like to dust that off and restart it. It was set in Ravenloft and the characters belonged to a secret society whose job it was to protect the citizens of the city from evil - while doing so as quietly and efficiently as possible. It was a great setup and I’d like to get a chance to really stretch it out. Very Victorian/Gothic - equal parts League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell. I’ll probably tweak a few things, for example I want to add a bit more of a demonic element to it - I even want to give the characters mephits (the mephits have been apprehended by this society and are serving penance for their crimes, but they don’t always follow orders to the letter and they try to thwart the plans of the characters in any way they can).

My goal with this campaign is to de-emphasize combat (though not eliminate it entirely) and to really explore ways to make roleplaying exciting and fun without resorting to bashing things over the head. I want it simple, rules-lite, mysterious, political, backstabbing and secretive. I want the characters back-story to matter more than the numbers on their page. I may introduce Character Traits/Flaws and Action Points to encourage some serious scene craft. I also may try to work in some kind of Scene Economy from Burning Empires (though I don’t have that game, so I’m kinda just winging it from what I’ve heard about it) so that we all get scenes and are responsible for setting up those scenes. They also really dug Mitch’s session so I’ll see if we can work in secrets (though that’ll admittedly be hard with no GM). I’m REALLY looking forward to this - this looks to be quite possibly our best campaign setup, ever.

In the meantime, I’m helping M.C. work on his first session as GM. I’m looking forward to being a player again, we’re playing Bad Light - a quick little published scenario designed to introduce players to D&D - I thought it’d work equally as well introducing a new GM. I’ll write up a play report whenever we run through this.

I’ve been tweaking. This is generally a bad thing, but I’m kind of addicted to doing this. Especially with d20 for some reason. This stems from the upcoming 4th edition: I like a lot and don’t like a lot. Same with 3rd, I like most but then some things bug me. Again with 2nd, loved much, but disliked a bunch too. So then I got to thinking…what if I took all the stuff I love from each edition and made this mish-mosh of rules and hope it makes sense? I’d need plenty of player input on this one, since things look very different in the GM seat, but let me give you my basic idea and see what you think. First off, let me assure you, when 4th edition comes out, I won’t be tweaking it at all since I want to experience that as is so that I can better judge it and take the things that work and leave behind the things that don’t - so don’t worry, you’ll get to experience 4th edition in all its glory. No, I was actually thinking we could try this with our “in-between” sessions (obviously minus 4th edition stuff - but that can get added later), which Ennis has already suggested doing a Gestalt campaign, which I’m on board for. But on to my idea:

I’d use the Castles & Crusades basic mechanics to start off with. First off, it’s a very bare-bones system that is easily added on to and tweaked without breaking the system, in fact it was designed to be that way. Here’s how it works: You are assigned a Prime Ability score based on your class, and you can choose one other (two if you’re human) ability score to make Prime. Any roll against any Prime stat is a base DC of 12. All other stats have a base DC of 18. You’re playing a Rogue with Dexterity as a Prime stat and you wanna jump a pit? Base DC of 12. Same pit but this time you’re a fighter with Strength as your Prime? Base DC of 18. Pretty simple, and it totally negates the need for Skills. 3rd edition does do a lot of stuff better (shields are handled better, I think) so I’d use whatever was simplest in any given circumstance.

I loved 2nd edition for the ease with which characters could be created - it was fast and easy - loved it. I also loved Non-Weapon Proficiencies - provided great fluff for your character, almost along the lines of Traits from BW and made skill rolls easy without having to worry about assigning skill points. I like the skill point system, but I feel it really bogs down character creation time and makes it difficult to create NPC’s on the fly. If I can just whip out a list of things an NPC knows without having to assign numbers to them, that’s great. What do you guys think? Do you feel the same way about 3rd edition skills or do you like them as is?

I love the balance and feel of 3rd edition classes, they feel heroic and fantasy without being overpowered. Not that some of them don’t need tweaking (I’m looking at you, Bard), but for the most part, 3rd edition did great with it’s core classes - it’s a great foundation with which to build from. But feats (and the aforementioned skills) cause me problems. Again, I LOVE feats - they really help to make your character stand out from other characters of the same class. The problem is that there are so many choices across so many books, even given only the core books, the choices are overwhelming, which again increases character creation time. So here’s what I propose: at every classes “dead” levels insert a choice of 2 class appropriate feats, much like Monks choosing between Stunning Fist and Deflect Arrow (or whatever it’s called) at 2nd level. I feel like this would save time, while still allowing room for uniqueness. I’d probably give fighters Maneuvers every few levels from the Book of Nine Swords, instead of bonus feats. What do you think? Do you like the vast array of feats, does this solution make you feel cheated out of character options?

As for 4th, that remains to be seen what I would add, but I’m liking the sound of Second Wind, and I like the per day/per encounter spells. Not to mention the fighters gaining access to special abilities based on what weapon they use, that is the one thing I’ve been most excited about. Oh, and Action Points (much like Artha from BW) is core now, which I kind of like.

Anyway, I’m going to post this to my blog so I can keep track of it, give me as much input as you can - what do you like, what don’t you like from all the various editions (from what you can remember). Is this too much messing around with and you’d just like to play the game as is? Is this just some kind of quirky GM need that players get overly frustrated with?

Ask my players: I bounce from one game to another. I have this tendency to be indecisive about my games, especially where d20 comes in. I’m constantly house-ruling, tweaking and cutting, pasting, adding and subtracting from it. I loved the simplicity of character creation that was 2nd edition and I enjoy the easy core mechanics of 3rd edition. If this were the end of my indecisiveness, I could just pull out my copy of Castles & Crusades which hits both points: fast and easy character creation, with a relatively simple core mechanic. But there’s more, you see, C&C classes tend to be bland, very few character options/powers/special abilities. I like that 3rd edition gives classes special abilities every few levels. This makes for heroic, epic, and powerful characters, which I think is what d20 does best.

There’s also a lot of things I’m hearing about 4th edition that I would enjoy: the Second Wind ability, fighters weapon specialization, per day and per encounter spells. But at the same time, 4th edition seems to have overdone it - giving characters too much power. What I’d like to do is take Castles & Crusades as a base, switch out 3rd edition classes where appropriate, ditch feats and skills and add in a few elements of 4th edition. I would possibly add feats to certain classes as special class abilities - maybe even giving two choices so that each player can feel like their character is unique. Skills should just be dropped and handled by ability checks since, along with choosing feats, assigning skill points increasing character creation time. I do like skill checks, but at a certain point in a characters career, they have so many skill points that skill checks become a forgone conclusion.

My only problem is the fact that compiling all that “stuff” into one place would be a major headache, not to mention play testing to make sure the classes are properly balanced with all my changes and the time it would take to put it all together. Is that really an effective use of my time as a GM? Shouldn’t I be writing NPC’s, or drawing maps, or creating encounters with badass monsters? It stuff like this that make me really think about this hobby and I really have to ask myself if it is really worth the time investment. If I spent all the time I do tweaking rules, and making imaginary characters, for practicing drums or my flute - I would be pretty damn good at either of those by now. *sigh* I DO enjoy making imaginary worlds though….

When we last left off, Nefryn had only just defeated Nalrysn in a Duel of Wits to give Nefryn an opportunity to advance his rank - the compromise being that instead of getting a nice cushy assignment guarding Jhysiira, he has now been assigned to Zarbreena, while Nalrysn takes over guarding Jhysiira. Coming events would prevent the assignment from even starting, however.

Valatar decided to seek out Istvrae, the protege of Siyavash and heir to the rank of Weaponmaster. A sparring match was called for, but quickly the fight became deadly. Two exchanges into the spar, Valatar landed a nasty B10 wound (Mortal) on Istvrae. Nefryn won +1D cash on hand by betting with some students who stayed behind. Siyavash, forgetting his place, quickly attacked Valatar, while the students turned on Nefryn. Valatar, having taken a couple Superficial wounds during his fight with Istvrae, was in no shape to face Siyavash and was quickly rendered incapacitated. Nefryn fared far better, easily dispatching the 3 students while only taking a Superficial wound. However, the tide turned when Siyavash finished with Valatar. Although Nefryn was able to score a couple Light wounds to Siyavash, the Weaponmaster was far more skilled and soon knocked Nefryn out with 2 Severe wounds, rendering Nefryn unconscious and bleeding badly.

Not wanting to have bodies found, Siyavash carted the two off, deep into the Underdark and dumped them into a small recess, assuming they would bleed out or the blood would attract some predator. With an amazingly lucky Die of Fate roll, a group of Duergar stumbled upon the two and were able to tend to the wounds. Some fine recovery rolls all around and the two will be healed in 3 months time.

We talked a bit after the session and they want to spend some time training up skills. Also, it sounds as though some new Beliefs will be written. Not only do they have to get away from the Duergar, unscathed, but also get through the Underdark, and in the meantime Siyavash could have made up any story he wants, so they can expect to be considered outcasts/exiles. Beyond those goals, now is a great time for Nefryn to gather followers around him to undermine the women. Next session should see Yasaryll (Malagerd’s Sorceress sister) pop up.