In real-world history The Dam Busters had to fly multiple missions to bring down the Nielefeld viaduct, because even they were struggling to bring down this very small target using the Grand Slam bomb (another invention by Barnes Wallis of bouncing bomb fame). In this fictional scenario the PCs are dropped behind the lines with a mission to mark the target with fire.
So with that in mind I was pondering how people get puffed out when fighting, worn down by the effort expended. I was wondering how you might replicate that in an OSR fight and here's what I came up with.
Thus a character with CON:9 would attempt the save every 9 rounds.
It would also be handy for sealing pockets, panniers, and trunks I suspect. Not to mention closing that bottle of wine against your friend that's drunk too much already.
So, how do you get the potions?
The thieves guild sometimes have them for sale, 2 in 6 for availability, and then a cost of 150gp.
Magical stores have them on a 3 in 6, and charge 200gp.
I started by rolling 3D6 six times. I got into the fudging business right away. I rolled double 1's twice, and each time rerolled all three dice. The end results were, 10, 7, 11, 9, 15, and 12. Not great, but thanks to the fudging, not awful either.
I allocated the stats as follows:
I slotted the 15 into STR because I wanted to play the "Grunt" class, and STR is a prime requisit for the class. In fact the only stat that earned a modifier was STR, on which I gained a +1, which comes into play during melee combat.
Rolling for nationality I got British (of course!) and as a pre-war profession Academic. My rolled rank was PFC, which I don't think is a British designation, but would be "Private".
Clearly I got English as a language, and I picked French as a secondary.
Rolled 2D6 for HP and managed to get 10 without any fudging!
Basic to-hit bonus, was +1, and Armour Class 11, and Saving Throw 14.
The only thing then to do was make a note of my level 1 abilities.
There's no equipment to be bought or noted as that will be given out when the mission briefings take place.
I really liked this process, simple straight forward and quick, meaning no session-zero needed, just roll-up and play.
The idea behind this suggestion is not to slide the scale towards realism, but rather to create an ongoing problem that can probably be ignored for a round or two but becoming more important as each round goes by. This would change the thought processes of the player.
Instead of limiting the mental calculation to "I can take one more hit" during combat, it adds the threat of accumulating damage that "could" outweigh the damage die of the monster.
There are plenty of variations that you might use instead or in addition, such as only bleeding on a crit', or different levels of bleeding.
Last night I decided to roll up a character having just completed reading through "White Box". I started with the statistic rolls running top to bottom.
I was quite happy with that start, I don't think I've ever rolled as high as 17 for stats in a straight 3D6 game in my thirty years of playing! Alas, a quick look at the available classes Fighter, Wizard, Cleric showed that none of them used CHA as the prime stat. However, you can move points between stats if its towards you prime stat. The least amount of fiddling I could do here was move some points to INT which would make the stats best suited as a Wizard.
I took them from CHA which still left me with two stats in the 15+ range. It felt like a shame to reduce my bestest evar(!) stat but needs must. That gained me a +1 on both INT and CHA rolls, and a 5% bonus on XP.
As a Wizard you can be any alignment, so I went for Lawful. I also got a +2 on magical saving throws because Wizards know their way around the spheres. Alas, wizards do not use armour so I ended on the default armour class.
The Hit Die for a first level wizard is 1D6, I "of course" rolled a 1. Time for that "fudge factor", I cheated, and rerolled getting a 3. I've never played a 1HP character, I just hate the idea of having to play ultra-level coward.
White Box gives you two ways of doing Saving Throws, either a single target number or the classic 6 options, I went with the 6.
I rolled up 120gp for starting gold, luckily enough this turned out to be enough for a spell book. Would have been a pretty poor wizard without that! To the shopping mall...
That left this penniless wizard without even a few coppers for a drink, let alone ink and quill. Anyway, the last thing to do was note the first level spells in his book, and in this I'm assuming the wizard knows all the first level spells.
Finally a quick internet search for a name generator and I named my wizard:
Ovior the Meddlesome
The team was hired to recover a personal comm' unit which was currently in the possession of corp exec. He had the comm in a safe on his private estate.
My team was made up of an Engineer, a Heavy, and a Netlogger.
The team started at the manor gates and easily wired a bypass on the alarm and slipped through the gates, closing them once through. Unfortunately they were almost immediately spotted by the three guards in the gate house. Heavy was the nearest to a face man they had, so he stepped forwards and tried to talk his way passed them. Sadly they were not having any of it, they slapped the alarm button and... BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Seconds later there were three dead guards, and our team's Engineer was lying down there with them.
The team ran into the manor grounds, and took cover in a briar patch. Guards were everywhere, they swept right past the team without seeing them.
Moving out of the briars they came to open ground surrounding a small lake. The mist coming off the water highlighted a bunch of alarm-linked lasers sweeping the grass. The team danced their way across the grass leaping over the lasers and not giving away their position.
Unfortunately they then found themselves by some willows which appeared to be a temporary hub of the ongoing search of the grounds. Bad luck was hounding the team and they were spotted. The guns came out again. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Four guards lay dead and Netlogger had more holes in himself than he was happy with.
They moved on towards the house which was surrounded by a moat. With a grapnel thrown across the water, Heavy crosses without getting wet, but the injured Netlogger slips and unfortunately shouts in dismay. The shout brings three guards, and only Heavy is able to fight them as Netlogger is swiming the rest of the way across. Fortunately the guards seemed to have been hired for their muscles rather than shooting skills, and Heavy soon puts them down.
The team ran to the nearest window, but that bad luck kept running. As they were fiddling with the window security four guard dogs came yapping for them, the dogs jumped into the moat and started swimming across. The team opened fire at the dogs in the water but missed and then it was a confused melee that ended up with four dead dogs and Heavy bleeding from a bad bite.
They busted through the window and found themselves in the library. The team looked around at the stuff in glass cases thinking it was probably worth a mint, but the alarm blaring meant there was no time to loot.
Exiting the library they came to the stairs but a guard had taken a good defensive position behind the stone balustrade with a machine pistol. With no cover at the bottom of the stairs, the team rushed the guard straight up the stairs. They managed to get up without dying, and mobbed the guard, but in the scuffle both the guard and Heavy ended up bleeding out on the floor.
Netlogger's knees went weak, injured and alone, he decided he couldn't go on, and bailed on the mission.
***
The mission was a hit on a convoy. A rich lawyer had purchased a one of kind A.I. and was transporting it, my team's job was to hit that convoy, locate the A.I. and steal it for the customer.
The team was three unnamed characters (names is a table yet to be written), Engineer, Heavy, and NetLogger. They rolled up on the convoy seeking the vehicle carrying the A.I.
The first vehicle they encountered was a likely looking transporter, but it turned out to be a dummy. My NetLogger however managed to sneak into the driver's phone and grab some intel' that would make identifying the correct vehicle easier.
Next vehicle approached was a van full of gun men, some smooth nudging and ramming pushed the van out of the convoy to fall way back and beyond concern. My team now knew that any similar vehicles could be ignored.
Next vehicle turned out to be a cop in an unmarked vehicle, obviously the lawyer running the show had some contacts down town! the cops started shooting and my team returned fire, and simultaneously hacked his cop car computer. The intel, gained help eliminate other vehicles in the convoy. The cop caught some bullets and fell out of the convoy.
The team rolled up on the next most likely vehicle... but a chromed up raging cyborg punched through the roof of the vehicle and started blasting away. The team returned fire, but in a very short time Engineer was dead, Heavy seriously injured and the cyborg almost untouched. NetLogger made the call, and the team bailed on the mission, sadly unsuccessful, they lost "Notoriety".
***
The game mechanic worked well, and I proved the mission is doable, rolling one pip higher on the dice for the vehicle check would have had my team hitting the truck with the A.I. and only dumb luck made them hit the car carrying the cyborg.
Now I need to put some more thought into the "tween-mission" rules. The team need to recruit a new team member, and I need to weigh up the factors that will figure into that. With damaged notoriety definitely playing a hand.
In Mekton (giant fighty robots) the life path generates not only a family for you, but breaks down the relation ships with your relatives and co workers. Do you have sibling rivalry? Hope so, because that will make for a very infesting character play. These relatives can come into your story at any point for twists and rescues.
In Vaesen, your character has to have been through a terrible mythic trauma. You can make one up yourself, or pick from a list. You also get motivations for your character's involvement in seeking the beasties. This is so much better than going in with a bland character, you are given a drive and reason to push the story forward,
Even Classic Traveller had a sort of life-path system, you would follow the character through their employment and you would have to invent any details around that framework. BUT as the versions have iterated up to Mongoose's, they've enhanced the life path by adding events into the term system. So you start with a character's employment history, but also some life charging events that you can bring into the actual play.
With this addition of character history you are better equipped to make an interesting and rich story, you start armed with threads to pull on.
Of course classic D&D and OSR games don't incorporate more than class and stats which is a very poor form of life path. I actually think that's fine for playing with others and the story emerges much easier between the player's characters, which is something that is just not there for solo play.
If someone is looking to make a small RPG product, can I request that you pump out a life path system for all the classic OSR races and classes? Please. Pretty please.
The rules he presents will need some careful application to your game session. The idea being that "personal grooming and visiting a fresher" is required in order to prevent your character entering the throne room smelling like a beavers bottom.
A possible problem with applying these rules is players getting annoyed with having to actually say that their character is doing something so mundane as freshening up. I've come across this sort of thing in D&D games where players want me as the referee to assume Dwarves are checking for slopes all the time, and elves are always looking for secret doors. Yet, as I've said to these players, if you can't be bothered to mention it, I can't either, and your character definitely wont.
It doesn't take much to apply these rules quickly and easily. Not visiting a fresher only matters...when it matters. Who cares about freshening up when nipping to the corner shop, but who cares when meeting the King? Huge difference. So if players talk about polishing their armour before meeting the King but DONT mention that visit to the most important room, that's when you can bring the rules into action.
Character creation is a matter of rolling on two (sometimes three) tables. My "little" fella for this delve turned out to be a Dwarf Locksmith armed only with a dagger and carrying 10 torches. Torches I should add, are the time limit on your adventure, if you're still underground when your last torch goes out, your character dies in the darkness. So... don't stay down too long. Various activities you undertake in the dungeon will consume torches, such as picking locks and searching for secret doors.
The game follows a strict loop with limited options at each stage and tables provide the results of your activities.
With your character rolled up, you roll to see what type of dungeon you'll face. There are 6 general categories of dungeon, and each has it own set of tables, for rooms, monsters, loot, etc.
You'll burn your first torch opening the door to the dungeon, then you start using the provided tables to build the dungeon as you explore. You'll need paper and pencil to draw out the dungeon and keep track of where your character is..
You'll roll up and move from room to room, checking each room for monsters, and its content. Some monsters and rooms will have loot for you to acquire. There are stairs in the dungeon leading down, and when you get to the third level you'll find the dungeon boss.
My descent was into a relatively small dungeon, I found the stairs down very quickly and had nowhere else to go. I defeated an Orc looted the body and found treasure in the room besides. The boss enemy was a dragon, and I simply ran away as the DPS of the beasty would have killed little Dwarfy long before he could defeat such a beast.
The game has out-of-dungeon actions you can do too, and my character paid to heal up, and sold off what loot he could, this enabled him to replenish his torches. On his next delve he'll be much more prepared with a magic spear, and healing spell that he'd looted on the first trip down. The character survived so he can go onto another dungeon or even back to that first one, and chance his luck.
In summary, this is neat little journaling game that lets you go-a-delving and have a little adventure. The length of game will vary based on what you roll on the dice so be prepared to stash your notes and map ready to return another day.
I'm an avid reader of RPGs. I don't just play them, I read rules and scenarios for fun. Therefore as a consumer I've got a lot of experience. I've come to a few conclusions about the digital layout and presentation of RPG books that I want to share in the hope that the thousands of professional RPG authors might catch a glimpse.
Alternative/Optional Rules: I've seen this "sin" in a number of rules sets. The principal is especially common in OSR games that like to offer Ascending and Descending Armour class options. I recently read WhiteBox which is a prime example of doing this. They offer two AC stats every time for the two alternatives. Yet even worse, is that in the "attack" section of the rules they offer two different ways of calculating if you've hit your target.
No. Just no!
This is a bad practice in a technical sense, Instead of providing clarity the rules-book is offering a set of alternatives, a mental fog if you will. And it not just on the initial reading, its also every time you need to look up something, you will have to wade through the confusion time after time.
Much better to separate your alternate rules and mechanisms, either stick them in a side bar, or better yet, add a footnote referring the reader the appendices.
Sadly, most people are asking the wrong question. Its not what looks best, its not how to cram text onto a page. The real question is: How will this book be used?
So, who is reading the book, and how are they reading the book?
PDFs are read predominantly read on phones, sure at the game table you might have a laptop, but the majority of reading is on the humble phone. Multi column layout sucks on a phone, keeping the reader pinching and scrolling on every single page. So if you're creating PDFs for the love of all that's good in the world, keep it in a singular column.
It's listed as Weight 1, cost 5gp. That's fine, but when compared to standard arrows which are 20 for weight 1, costing 5gp.
How the heck does a single arrow with a silver head cost 50 silver pieces? How on earth does it encumber the same as 20 normal arrows. I'm assuming that a normal arrow has an iron head on it.
I put on my "rationalizing head".
I would expect a standard silver arrow head to maybe be the equivalent of 2-3 standard coins, so there must be much more to this silver arrow than just a silver head. It cant be that the entire arrow is made of silver, that would meet the strange weight statistic but there's no way that would fly from a bow, far too heavy.
So here's what I suggest. The head of the arrow is silver, but also, silver is inset in a thin line along the shaft of the arrow too. This should prevent the monster grabbing the shaft and pulling it out, as the silvered shaft would make that too painful. So now we have a delicate jewellery-level inlaid silver shaft and a silver arrow head.
Whereas a standard arrow can take a lot of bouncing around in a quiver, this arrow needs protection from the buffeting of adventuring. Therefore the cost of the silver arrow covers the cost of the effort put into its production, as well as a special lined and padded leather holster to keep it safe.
Playing by Post in a forum is a way of roleplaying without the need to meet with other players in real time, be that face to face or online. Fundamentally its about working together to tell a story in text, with players taking turns...
... and its terribly slow. I've been one of those shits that just fades on a play by post game and stops posting. I'm not happy about that. So I've put some thought into why I became a shit, and have come to the conclusion that playing by post using standard RPG rules is the problem (which means I can blame the mechanism and deny being a shit, huzzar!). The normal RPG process that you would use around the table when applied to the post system fails me. It goes this way...
And with each post coming 1-3 days after the previous one, the game drags on.
Players forget what they were doing and have to read back across a long series of posts trying to find what the story actually is and what's happening. Scrolling back over two or three pages just to read a bit of description from the opening of the scene is tiresome and the answer may not even be there in the text, meaning rather than progressing with his post they end doing nothing more than posting another question... and waiting.
With this drawn out process there's no excitement, and little to no thrill in actual play (writing).
There is a good alternative, but I don't know what it is. However I am going to put some time into coming up with an answer. The play style/mechanism needs to be altered to keep me engaged, and I'm going to see what I can come up with.
Judge Taylor is sitting on his RIDE rushing to finish a donut before the end of his mandated fifteen minute break and idly watching the feed of crime reports on the bike's console. A murder report flashes by at a nearby block, but he restrains himself, he's got 30 seconds yet until he's allowed to resume work. A raid on a clothing store, a mugging, vandalism, vehicle on fire. His finger hovers over the console. The last second ticks by, he taps the console. "Control, Judge Taylor, I'll take the body on Rudyard Kipling block". The RIDE roars to life and in seconds he's racing the half mile to Kipling.
He pulls off the main drag and descending the down ramp sees a crowd in front of the block. His arrival innevitably leads to a few people fleeing the scene at speed, and more leave as he barges his way through the crowd. In the centre of the crowd a man lies in a spreading pool of blood . He's flattened some what, Taylor looks up at the block towering fifty stories above him, but by the looks of it the victim didn't fall more than ten floors. He kneels flips the body over, sees what looks like a bullet hole in the man's side. "Anyone know him?" he asks the crowd, but no one answers. Nothing unusual.
He heads into the block, contacting the block management and telling them to get the scene cleaned up. Ten stories up he uses his ident to open an apartment door. "REDD authorised entry, citizens stand back do not interfere." He commands any occupants. Inside he finds the only occupant is a small child, no sign of any adults. "Control, Judge Taylor. Residents apartment 10-67 Rudyard Kipling block have left an underage child alone, schedule a custody retreival for the child."
He slides open the window and takes a half step into the six inch deep "balcony". There's a splash of blood on the ledge, looking up he sees that it's dripped from the balcony above. A glance down confirms that he's directly above the corpse.
As Taylor closes the front door he activates a REDD block to prevent the residents access, and takes the stairs to the floor above. The stair well is filthy and Taylor has to step over a couple of drugged citizens. At room 11-67 he notes the door is damaged, he uses his REDD ID to digitally reverse the spy hole in the door. Peeking through he can see into a living room that's in disarray. A man lounges in a chair a pistol dangling from his right hand.
Taylor draws his BEAST and activates a STUN. In one smooth action, he kicks the door open tosses the STUN and steps aside. After the first flash and stunning warble he rushes into the apartment. The occupant has dropped the gun and is covering his ears, he's in cuffs before the STUN shuts off.
"I was defending myself." He cries.
"Sure." Taylor acknowledges and pulls out his TRUTH. "Tell me what happened, no stories, just the facts."
The citizen tries to slow his breathing then starts. "He burst in, had a knife. I shot him and he fell out the window."
The TRUTH registered a lie. "Lieing to a REDD Judge is two years buddy.We'll get the rest outta you back at headquarters."
This book lists equipment suggestions that players can use directly or as inspiration for their own ideas.
The book is designed as an introduction to the 7th ed' and so you literally follow instructions built into the text of the story to build your character. This is pretty clever, there's no need to spend half an hour building a character before you start. You read a few paragraphs, do your stats, do a few more paragraphs, do your career and skills, do a few more, calculate your hard/extreme values.
Its really well done, and fun to play. Alas, my character didn't make it on the first play through. Am I inclined to try again? Not yet. Once is enough for me at least, but I'm the same way with the full length game books too. I only go back to them after a few months, when I've forgotten enough about them to keep it fresh again.
Recommended if you have an hour or two to fill. I printed out the character sheet, and used the PDF on screen. You could go all digital if you can find a fillable character sheet. You dont need the core rule book to play, I only had to look up one thing, "what is a hard skill check", but if you want you can download the quickstart rules for free.
And as I'm mentioning Call of Cthulhu ... please consider listening to my fiction podcast which is called "Cthulhu"
When I read the rules I was immediately brimming with ideas for missions. Central Europe is full of juicy "things" that waste runners would want to get their hands on. LOOT!
So I went ahead and put together a scenario for the game. Going Nuclear is my first Waste Runners scenario. It builds on the lore of the base game, creating a UK overrun with Europeans that escaped the devastation of the continent, and are reduced to living in shanties covering entire counties. Spain has changed to a fascist dictatorship and stands on the brink of war with a UK-allied Portugal.
The players will be British agents racing a Spanish expedition into the wasteland to recover something that should never have existed.
My little drop-in drop-out game REDD Judge has started to take off. John over at Terminal Goblin Games has put out a REDD Judge world building video. If you like big-city post-apocalyptic lawman on the street kinda games, this might be one for you.
