The Troubles of Machine Sheet Games, Battletech in Specific

Over at the Classicbattletech.com forums a fellow was lamenting why he was leaving Battletech.  Many of us were discussing it, and one of my comments: "I played more games of Megamek in 6 months than I have in my 22 YEARS of owning Battletech.  One thing playing a lot lets you see is the actual flaws in the BT game system that can only really be fixed with a total incompatible new rules edition.  By this point and the size of the BT community I don't think it will happen.", came up as a topic for a thread discussing what is wrong or could be improved for Battletech.


Well for those of you who don't know, Battletech was once a MAJOR name in hobby gaming.  Its a "Machine Sheet" game involving giant stompy war robots smashing into each other with guns and missiles and their feet in a hard scifi setting.


But being a hardcore "Machine Sheet" game has relegated it to a small but vocal fanbase.   It for good AND ill has also effectively been unchanged as a ruleset since at least 1986 thereabouts.  (True there have been tweaks and clarifications, but some guy with pre 1990 books could use them and play with guys who just bought the current starter set yesterday.  There would be a few minor changes, but not too many.  The last 3 COMPLETELY COMPATIBLE editions of Warhammer 40K have more serious changes than Battletech has.  In half the time.)


I took it upon myself to comment on what issues I felt Battletech has to deal with, both in getting new players due to its design, and how people might want a simpler game, using an example of play.


Let's see what I wrote eh?  (Good forums content is always a candidate for a blog post.)


(As always I tweak things a bit for you fine readers, many of whom may not be familliar with the game in question.)


Well.  Here is the thing.  At CBT.com most people are generally gonna be positive about Battletech as it is, and thus are pretty much happy overall with the game and don't want it to change.   If they weren't, they would stop playing as so many have.  (Obviously things like work/family schedules, availability and quality of local players and such count too, but this is mostly about the GAME ITSELF.)

I look at CBT this way:  On one hand its TOTALLY AWESOME that I can effectively use every BT product I have bought since my 14th birthday in June 1988 when I went into a mall hobby shop and bought Battletech (thanks to a review in Dragon Magazine, my love of Robotech, and the Robotech RPGs not being stocked there...) and Runequest 3rd edition.

On the other.  Game design has evolved and BT is still an insanely slow, detailed, and clunky game.

For 1 on 1 duels, or lance action sized games?

It does its job well, though player skill and a handy box of tokens (see my review of custom Litko tokens that REALLY are all but essential to proper BT play unless you have an excellent memory: http://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2009/12/review-corner-litko-aerosystems-custom.html ) helps speed things up.

Last full lance game I played at Connecticon 09 took FIVE HOURS.  Myself and another half awake semi lapsed player at a con game using L2 lances.  (Event organizer selected the battle type and units involved.  I probably ticked him off by saying for a demo/intro game he should have gone 3025 only and probably 2 on 2 fights, not lance actions.)


(A Lance in Battletech is generally a 4 mech/tank squad.)

Battletech is a design for detail game, not design for EFFECT.   Its like most "Machine Sheet" games.  Renegade Legion, Starfleet Battles, Car Wars, and Silent Death are the other big names in the genre.  (Honestly IMHO Silent Death is THE best Machine Sheet game.  Battletech comes in second.)

Machine sheet games tend to cover things into minutia.  Many people don't need that level of detail.  Add in that because its such a long lived system so many more rules BT really wasn't intended to cover have really filled it up.  It went from small mech duels in light terrain to trying to cover the entire SCOPE of a Battletech universe battle with all the evolving and devolving technologies in 6 CENTURIES of armored warfare.

Battletech if we count Clan weaponry, Solaris 7 duelling tech, and experimental gear has close to what?  100 different weapons and combat systems?

While many people like this level of detail, for the majority (as evident by 40K basically supplanting BT and SFB as THE scifi minis wargame) its too much.

Let's just take one on one 3025 play.

Each player needs a sheet of paper per mech they play, plus at least a double sided reference sheet with ELEVEN charts on it.  And this is assuming your mech sheets have their weapons listed on them, plus the heat effects chart.

So to START, for a 1 on 1 introductory 3025 duel, you have 13 effective charts.  This isn't counting advanced rules, urban combats, vehicles, infantry, aerospace, non mapsheet miniatures play, or RPG elements.

That's a TON of information players need to know.

Now on to a mech sheet.  Now each sheet is a single full page (though tanks, infantry, VTOLS, and some other units don't need a full page, the stars of the game DO.)

Your mech has a heat status bar, a movement information section, weaponry (which all have differing ammunition, heat, damage types, and range which must be kept track of), pilot information, and weight.  11 exterior armor locations which can have dozens and dozens of damage points to cross off, plus 8 internal locations once the exterior armor has been taken off.  Our heat chart has SEVENTEEN different levels of effects, and a player also has to keep track of everything used heatwise, plus how many heat sinks are left operational.

Then there is the potential for up to 54 pieces of internal equipment which can be damaged and destroyed, with 4 REALLY essential bits to each unit to be kept track of.  (Engine, Gyro, Sensors, Life Support.)  


Bur that's just the essential ones.  You need to also pay attention to limb actuators, jump jets, and other such devices.

There is more information to be kept track of on a SINGLE mech sheet than what an entire Battlemech COMPANY should have for a modern miniatures wargame.


(A Battletech Company is 12 mechs or tanks.  Or 3 Lances.  A Battalion is 3 Companies, a Regiment is 3 Battalions, a Division is 3 Regiments.  The Battleforce 1st edition wargame is designed to simulate a Regiment fighting, but has campaign rules to cover a Divisional fight.  If I ever can get my Tuesday group TO ACTUALLY ALL MEET ON TIME ON SCHEDULE AND PLAY SOME GAMES, I will show yall how great it is as a "Design for Effect" game sometime soon.)

Again, for duels this is pretty good having tons of stuff.  But it REALLY breaks down when trying to play with non or casual gamers, or adding more units and more advanced levels of play.

Now let's see what we could potentially have for dice rolls for one medium mech firing at another.

Let's say a Trebuchet (2 LRM 15s, 3 Medium Lasers) is shooting at a Phoenix Hawk (2 Machineguns, 2 Medium Lasers, 1 Large Laser.)

First we need to check shooting modifiers at the target.  Has the Trebuchet Walked, Ran, or Jumped?  Does it have any penalties for arm damage and weapons within said arms?  Is it on the ground or firing at a prone target?  Does it have any sensor or heat penalties?  What terrain elements is it firing through?  How many hexes of actual movement (since turning and difficult terrain don't count as movement for target difficulty) did the P Hawk use?  Is the mech firing at a secondary or tertiary target as well?

We aren't done yet.  We also need to know the distance for each weapon system.  And there are also penalties for some weapons if you are within minimum range.  And line of sight/torso twisting matters, especially since arm mounted guns have a wider firing arc!

Ok great, we have now added what could be NINE different modifiers to the base Gunnery roll.  If we were playing Star League/3050 tech we could also need to take even more modifiers into account.  (Weaponry mods, computer systems, ect.)

Now we roll to hit.  Obviously in practice most of those mods won't matter, but let's say the Trebuchet walked, has no heat or systems damage, and the P Hawk has a +2 to be hit for speed, and a +1 for being in a Light Woods.  (For sanity's sake its not prone, has a L1 hill in the way, intervening terrain in front of it, and we are gonna ignore Fire and Smoke rules which could add even more modifiers and dice rolls.)

We will say the P Hawk is... oh 6 hexes away and in the Treb's front arc.  (Non Battletech players out there?  I bet you want NOTHING to do with this game already, right?  It probably sounds as scary as Advanced Squad Leader.)

So our "average" modifiers are: +1 for walking.  +2 for target speed.  +1 for terrain.  A +4 to his Gunnery. Now we have our 4th and in this case final modifier.  Range.  The Trebuchet player makes notes for heat, and decides to fire everything.  20 heat, and he has 10 heat sinks so he is at the 10 mark on the Heat chart.  4 more points and he would have a roll to make to avoid shutting down.  If he does this next turn he has 2 rolls to make.  One for shutdown one for ammo explosions.  As is he now has movement and targeting penalties next turn.

Oh wait.  I forgot about range.  At 6 hexes he is in medium range with the mediums so his Gunnery for the mediums is +6.    Now the LRMs are in short for no modifier.  BUT.. he is in the minimum range category which adds a +1 to the modifer for a +5.  Now his Gunnery is 4 so the Mediums need 10s to hit and the LRMs need 9s.

We are gonna say the dice are with the Treb player.  He rolls his 5 attacks (some mechs have over a DOZEN weapon systems to fire) and we will say the 2 LRM 15s and 1 Medium Laser hit.

The Medium Laser is simple enough.  Since the Phawk is totally visible it is on the normal chart, front facing.  Now we need to roll a second time for the simple attack to see where it hits.  I am gonna say it rolls a 7 and hits the Center Torso for 5 points of damage.  The Phawk now has 18 points left.  Now for EACH LRM 15 we have to see how many missiles hit before we can assign damage.  So we roll for each LRM and I shall use our friend 7 and that means each spread has 9 out of 15 hitting.  So that's 2 locations to roll for each spread.

(Query to the experienced: Would I just divvy up all the hits together, or go for each salvo as their own thing?  I am assuming its the way I am doing it.  If its the other way, we STILL have 4 attacks anyhow so its not even saving time!)

Now for LRMs we break it up into splots of 5 so 2 locations for each spread.  (For SRMs each of the 1-6 missiles hits somewhere new.  Oh, in L2 play there are missile systems with 40 LRM type missiles.  And shotgun type weapons.)  A 5 and a 4.  (Or if its the other way, 3 5s and a 3.)  For our purposes we roll a 2 which is a Center Torso hit with a potential for an internal hit before damage actually reaches the internals. and a 10 which is the Left Arm which we will say only had 3 armor points left.  The next 2 have a 12 which is a Head hit, and we will say the next roll hits a location with plenty of armor.

Now for the CT crit location requires ANOTHER roll to see if we cause a critical hit and how many.  Now if we do, that roll can cause 1-3 critical effects which require at least 2 dice rolls to discover what happened which can then cause MORE rolls to be made.  We will just say it was one critical.  We roll upper or lower CT section and get upper.  Now we roll for what we hit and its the Gyro.  This will cause a piloting check with modifiers at the end of this phase.  (So another roll for someone.)  

The Head hit causes damage to armor but as it is a pilot location the pilot takes a point of damage and will have to roll to stay awake.

Now the arm hit was into the internal so we roll to see if there are any criticals.  For my sanity and the sake of brevity I shall say no.

Now the Phawk has THREE rolls to make.  He took a Gyro hit, and he took more than 20 damage in a phase. And his roll to stay awake. (This is just the shooting phase.  From 1 unit on 1 unit.)  He will pass his wakey wakey roll, and the Gyro hit, but making 2 high rolls for Piloting is rough and he fails the second.  Now he has to roll for falling, location of fall, divvy up falling damage ala missile hits, make any additional critical hit checks, and another piloting check for pilot damage from falling and possibly ANOTHER check if he does fail since it means another pilot wakey check.

Now.. firing is simultaneous so the Phawk's firing goes back.  Then its on to the close combat phase if they happen to be nearby.

Had enough die rolls yet?

One ROUND of combat between 2 mechs can potentially involve over a hundred die rolls.

Is it any wonder why many people don't play this sort of game, and many more may have issue with the sheer level of detail involved?

And I just covered a COMMON round of shooting.  Nothing too advanced.  Something you will see in almost every game of Battletech ever played.

Now I LIKE Battletech.  I like it a lot.  But only at the Lance level, and usually 3025-3055 level with Mechs and Tanks only.  No infantry, aerospace, urban, naval, or advanced rules.  For someone who hasn't made this one game their lifestyle its an all session event to play out one game.  Even online Megamek games where the program keeps track of everything for you tends to take 2 hours or so to play out a normal 3025 lance on lance game!

I can completely see why most people would be intimidated if not outright HOSTILE to this sort of game.

Now Silent Death is nowhere near as complicated as the Machine Sheet genre goes, but Starfleet Battles, Car Wars, and Renegade Legion go to even MORE absurd levels.  Starfleet Battles has a bleeding TAX FORM to fill out each turn!

Some games have tried to streamline it, and really only Federation Commander (Starfleet Battles' better kid brother) managed to succeed.  (Car Wars totally missed the point and all but killed the franchise.  And as any gamer knows SJGames mostly only cares about Munchkin these days so CW is pretty much gone for good.)

Obviously lots of folks including me like Battletech, but there NEEDS to be a complete stand alone Battletech game for the casuals, the fans who just want big mass battles like they see in the Gundams and Robotechs and such, the guys whose schedules MAYBE give them 2-3 hours a month to play a game.

Battletech is like a car engine.  Some folks love tinkering with them and can go on about how this engine is better than that engine especially with this kind of shock and tires.

Other folks just want their car to go faster when they put the gas pedal down, slower when they hit the brake, and to turn the direction they turn the wheel.


Gaming, like driving, has more people who just want the latter.


I can get casual gamers to play a game like Wings of War which simplifies World War 1 or 2 air combat into something you can teach all but the optional rules to a half dozen people in 5 minutes or so.


Sitting them down with a game like Battletech is foolish at best, and potentially KILLING any interest in gaming said casuals might have at worst.


Yet Wings of War is as exciting and epic as any "Machine Sheet" game without the 90% of detail Battletech and the MS genre has.  The same thing with Uncharted Seas.   They UNDERSTAND most people don't need or want that level of detail.  When you do an attack in Wings of War you just take a card from the appropriate damage deck if you are in one of 2 range bands and have line of sight to the target.  Icons on the cards tell you if anything special or crazy happened to either player, and then there are damage points that eventually take the plane out if one of the icon effects doesnt.


It effectively does the same thing that massive wall of "TL;DR" text I wrote about the Battletech Trebuchet firing at a Phoenix Hawk did and does it with one or two card draws instead of dozens of dice rolls and chart checks.


Did our Wings of War card tell us exactly what bit of mechanics got hit or missed by the guns on our Sopwith Camel?  


No.  WE DON'T CARE.


It gets down to the essentials we DO care about.  Did the Fokker DR1 get fragged?  Did it's pilot get taken out of action, possibly stunned or blacked out?


That we learned.   We had the EFFECT, not the massive piles of detail getting us there.


Like the car example.  We don't care how the gasoline is turned into gasses that move the cylinders that make the pistons move which make the car move forward based on the pressure we put to the gas pedal, or what gear the car was in per revolution and how G forces, tire and wheel type, shocks and the steering affect the turn.


Just that cars go faster if the gas pedal is pressed down further, a Porsche is faster than a Yugo, and its hard to keep on the road if you go really fast down that hairpin turn.


Its the effect we care about, not the detail.


Though to be sure, sometimes the "devil in the details" is all part of the fun.


And that's why I do play and enjoy Battletech.


But Cthulhu knows its not the only way to do things or that its for everyone!

My AD&D House Rules Part 9:Let's Make a Character!

Its been a long time, but this little project was actually done around the time of the other 8 parts yet not published to the blog as I had entered it into a contest that never actually went anywhere.

So now the penultimate installment in this project. A project I would probably do quite different these days but so be it!

Narfindor Thoughts

I don't feel like getting detailed today, but I do have some thoughts on Narfindor, and bringing it to life.

First off, even my now reduced from 250 to 200 miles per hex while it may be realistic from a size perspective, is too big and sprawling for a gameplay one, or the amount of notable settlements. I think I may drop it down even further to 100 miles per hex. That's still over 1200 miles north to south. An utterly MASSIVE region by hobby gaming standards, but still big enough to feel like a real continent. The big river will still be massive, and the smaller one is like 300 miles. If you figure around 50 miles of river travel per day, that's 6 days from the lake to the ocean. The other river is 12. Realistically, there will be other things slowing you down on the way. If we figure about 25 miles of land travel a day, each hex at 100 miles takes 4 days to traverse.

Another thing is making the map more legible, and labeling everything. Its one reason I chose not to do the Holk's Pride/Camp Adamant regions. I didn't feel like going from my updates to make sure I keep the names the same.

So I have to decide: Find a better Mac capable map program than the old AD&D Core Rules 2.0 and possibly break it into the 3-4 regional areas? (Figuring that these 4 maps would have 1 of those big hexes containing 7 hexes on the new scale.) Should I use Comic Life and just make pretty labels on the old one?

This is the sort of work that goes into making a good world to adventure on. You need a mixture of realistic feel, yet with concessions made to playability.

Work continues!

Update: Thanks to Silverlion on #therpgsite IRC channel on Magicstar.net, I found a nifty little Java app that makes some nice Basic D&D era hex maps similar to what Thorf's Mystara website has, albeit a little less professional looking.

http://inkwellideas.com/?page_id=160

I only spent a little time playing with it, but quickly had a basic version of An Rikod made in a matter of minutes after opening the program. It may be a thing where making the basic core map, saving it as its image file option, then cleaning it up in an actual image editing program like Photoshop or Gimp is the best solution.



As you can currently see, I have the continent pretty much the same as the Core Rules 2.0 map maker, but with more precise terrain placement than the large element icons CR2.0 had. Obviously I will need to do more work and learn to use the new map program a bit better to get its total potential, but I think a mixture of both programs will suit my needs the best.

CR2.0 for general world maps the PCs might see, and the Inkwell Ideas program for a more structured DM friendly map.

My AD&D 2nd House Rules Part 8 - Combat Appendix

Due to various whines I have gotten over too many details elsewhere, and just some other ideas I have, this part 8 will be my Appendix section. An ever evolving area for short term errata and ideas other places and games have given me.

(Updated on 20 November 08)

Over at James M.'s Grognardia a discussion of the overly detailed and unfun Weapon Type vs Armor Type came up. The discussion lead to a brainstorm that is my first installment here.

Though I guess if you wanted a quick and dirty weapon effect system you could go Cutting, Bashing, and Penalizing. (Obviously counting things like ranged, polearm, or normal.)

(Bonuses are in general, not just against what's reduced.)

Cutting gets improved damage but reduced to hit against any armored target. (-1 / +1)
Bashing has improved chances to hit, but reduced damage. (+1 / -1)
Penalizing does less damage and is hard to hit with, but causes lots of saving throw or attribute check type effects. (Stunning blackjacks, blocking attacks with a Sai or Main Gauche, tangling with Nets or Bolas.) (-1 / -1)

Sure my idea is just generalizing things (An Axe, Sword, and Spear all hit and hurt differently after all!), but its a quick and dirty way to make different weapon types appealing. Technically an arrow is gonna have little trouble with most armor, but abstractly it could be affected, and its pointy bleedyness shouldn't be any stronger, but its a neat quick way of doing it.

Do you have armor or something armor like? Ok, the most popular weapons have a harder time hitting you, but now they all do more damage. However, the mace and warhammer are gonna hit you more often, but in general aren't quite as deadly though it hurts. Penalizing weapons have a harder time causing actual hits and the damage is reduced, but they can SERIOUSLY mess you up.

I really like this quick idea and may implement it into the big houserules list.

IDEA 2: Unarmored AC. Sadly, most versions of D&D really penalize anyone dumb enough to go without armor. Here is an idea to fix it. If a character shuns armor of any sort (this includes Armor, Helmets, Bracers, and Shields, along with any sort of spell that physically gives the character armor like Barkskin or Stoneskin) outside of magic jewelry or spells that do not physically alter the character, they get DOUBLE their DEX AC bonus. This is in addition to any bonuses certain classes or kits gain. Thus an unarmored character with a +2 AC bonus for DEX would have a +4 AC bonus instead.

We can even add some neat perks to help this. Unarmored Shield Fighting allows Shields to not be counted as being armor, while Unarmored Helmet Fighting would do the same for helmets. A character could rock out Gladiator or "300" Spartan style.

Ya know, I really like this idea too. Its neat! I can't possibly be the only person to think of this.

IDEA 3: Simplified Diagonals Movement. Putting this into my actual text would be a pain and require a couple hours of rewrites, but a quick and dirty thing I houseruled into a Tunnels & Trolls game was an epiphany. If you move any diagonals in a turn your movement is reduced by 1 for every bracket of 12 movement you have rounded up but you may always move 1 square, even diagonal. (So a MV 1-12 loses 1 square of MV. A 13-24 loses 2 for doing 1 diagonal, a 25-36 loses 3 and so on. No fractional accounting needed. It would be fine for weapon ranges too. Just increase the actual distance by 1 for the same distance bands. So if you fire at a 25-36 distance target and its diagonally its really 3 squares further away!)

IDEA 4: Improved Starting Hit Points. This is an easy one! At first level PCs can either take their maximum Level 1 HP + CON modifier, or their CON score with no modifiers. Whichever is higher.

For most characters this increases low level survivability immensely. It probably won't do much for D10 or D12 HP characters, but for everyone else its pretty huge. I would still keep max HP rolls for level 2 and 3 though!

IDEA 5: Character Generation Dice. Instead of the 4d6 take 3 highest approach, its 2d6+6.

This lessens the really crappy characters that just don't belong in a middle fantasy game as PCs anyhow. 8 becomes the new minimum, and 13 becomes the average. For a slightly weaker game, do 2+2d8, but any rolled 1 becomes a 2. Minimum becomes 6 and average scores will be 11. Actually I would probably use this over the 2d6+6 to tell you the truth, especially if Idea 4 is used as well.

ERRATA: Firearms Backfire Damage. Looking back I seem to be saying if you roll a 1 for damage you do 8 damage to yourself. This is incorrect. You do maximum basic die rolled damage for that firearm to yourself, ignoring any bonuses or penalties. Also it seems I forgot to give a bonus to damage for close range firing to Mr Runtherd in one of the examples.

See kids, this is what happens when you don't have an editor looking over your work, and you just blat out your ideas with only a couple quick reskims over what you wrote. This sort of thing needs to be done, lest you be like a certain game designer from Michigan. (OOOH! I MUST BE A HATER NOW! Then again, compared to what some sites say about the dude, I am being nice about it. He sure writes some infectious fluff though! :P )

My AD&D 2nd House Rules Part 7 - Combat Part 4

No comic style this time. This one is back to text. And it is also MUCH shorter.

Encounters, Initiative, and Other Stuff.

For encounters its usually best to let the DM decide based on player actions which side is going first each round, and continue on that pattern unless something drastic happens. There is no need to roll opposing dice or anything. In the rare event two sides run into each other, roll 1D10 on each side, high side gets to act first.

Being surprised or getting the jump on the other side should again be DM determined. Either let the surprised side go second, or give the surprisers one action in combat then do the combat encounter as normal.


(To me this is simple, fast, elegant and usually how I played it in most RPGs to begin with.)


Initiative

There are two choices for Initiative. Super Simple, and Advanced.

In Super Simple each side does all their actions at once, including multiple attacks per round, and spell casting, with Segment 5+ spells (to ones that take multiple rounds of combat which activate at however many rounds it takes just before that caster does anything else) happening AFTER the other side gets to do its actions.

The above is best for non miniatures combat, quick easy fights, or similar situations.

Advanced Initiative requires a bit more record keeping, but provides more tactical options. In Advanced, each side does their normal one side at a time deal like above, except you go based on your Dexterity Modifier during your side's actions. So a party with 4 characters in it, one with Dex 10, Dex 13, Dex 15, and Dex 17 would have the Dex 17 character perform his actions first (+2 modifier), the Dex 13 and 15 could choose to let one go before the other each round ( +1 modifier), and the Dex 10 (0 modifier) goes last. Then the other side goes.

If the other side doesn't have any units with a written DEX score, the DM can choose however he or she wants the order to go for the rest of the fight for those units. Generally officers, lightly armored units, smaller things, and such should go before the big lumbering bits. So a trio of Kobolds, an Ogre, and an Orc Commander would probably have the Orc Commander go first, then the Kobolds, then the Ogre.

Spell casting times go as follows:

Segment 1-3 spells go off instantly.
Segment 4-6 spells go off after half the other side has taken their actions.
Segment 7-9 spells go off just before your side's turn comes up again.

(The above is way simpler and faster than how AD&D 1 or 2 handles combat rounds. My combat movement seems to be too complicated for many, and the main goal of this is to simplify and streamline much of AD&D to play how I want it to. Thus we make up for it in how the round actually plays out.)


Other Stuff:

This is mostly a placeholder for things that come up in the midst of play. Usually let the PHBs or your DM handle it as you all think fit. Call this section the FAQ if anyone in my group or anyone online has questions that should be answered.

Like Power Stunts. Do you get multiple stunts, or is it your only combat action for the turn? Its the latter. You have one chance to do something that fancy a round.



TA DA! House rules are finished! Outside of doing a full combat round explanation comic, my little project has reached the end of the road! I'm sure there is plenty I have missed in rules to be tweaked, or in some cases my streamlining might just be complicated in all new ways, but it is something I am happy with overall.

New Editions, Feel, and Compatibility

Over at RPGnet there was a discussion about if 4th edition D&D is D&D at all. Of course the usual comments were made. Its whatever you consider it to be, whatever Gary Gygax did, whatever the current owner of the IP counts, yadda yadda.

The thing is, its a new edition. Its gonna cause angry feelings!

The problem is most RPG editions are SO DIFFERENT FROM THE LAST ONE it causes all this mayhem. Games Workshop for all their flaws basically have kept the same game engine and just tweaked it since the early 80s. The only major drastic rules shift was with 40K between 2nd and 3rd. 3rd was justifiably terrible because of this, but 4th and 5th being 95% compatible with the previous ruleset ended up being very fun and satisfying games provided you still didn't hold a 2nd ed grudge. They kept working on it, and tweaking, and fixing the game system till it shined.

D&D generally followed this up until 4th. OD&D with expansions was quite similar to AD&D which was super similar to 2nd (unless WAAH NO DEMON AND DEVILS CALLED AS SUCH is unsimilar enough.) and 2.5 was kind of close to 3rd though it was a much greater departure if you never bothered with the Option books.

4th is too much of a change for most people. Its barely recognizable outside of keeping the name. Its game rules feel is totally off.

Now setting and gameplay feel can be affected by the players themselves, the rules are the biggest part. Its not really designed for anything other than one certain style of play.

It was bad in 3.x for this, but you could finagle enough of the previous versions' style to work. 4th seems to in fact have decided 3.x's intended design style is the ONLY design style to play and wham bam thank you Tiamat.

Any new game edition that makes most of the previous edition's supplements useless is gonna cause no end of grief for players, and bitching online.

And it's generally DESERVED.

To be sure, the Internet is mostly for ineffective complaining and pornography, but there are enough people who are justifiably mad at this. Hell, a number of companies are betting their livelihood on this. (See Paizo with Pathfinder.)

Of course, this being RPGnet, the land where new editions MUST. BE. BOUGHT. since apparently the industry is a charity as opposed to a niche hobby for dumbass losers like myself who like silly things like reading and using our imagination, rude comments were made.

Meaning its time to stop posting for a while till my tolerance for stupid aligns with my need to be in the know about RPG stuff.

I dont even think I am being that hard on 4th. Just making some common sense comments. If you change a game that much and make 100s if not 1000s of dollars of people's stuff suddenly useless and change the basic feel of the entire game, some people are gonna be pissed, especially online, which as I mentioned, is nothing but porn and bitching about stuff nobody in the real world cares about.

D&D is just a big example of how such a major shift can screw you. Just ask Wizkids whose 2nd edition of Mage Knight effectively killed the game. Or Mechwarrior Dark Age which was such a shift from Battletech that even though Battletech was kept in production, the sheer level of hatred put it in such a weakened position it was never going to be a big hit period. Or Space Marine/Titan Legions. The shift to Epic 40,000 turned Games Workshop's 3rd pillar into a barely existing nonentity residing in the fringes of GW's Specialist games line.

Should we really accept these sorts of shenanigans? In the world at large even modest tweaks to a little stand alone game like Clue cause major news stories and outrage.

Yet in the hobby gaming field we seem to have such an addiction to buying MORE OF THE SAME DAMNED THING (almost) that it should be praised?

My AD&D 2nd House Rules Part 6 - Combat Part 3

My descent into needless minutae and silliness CONTINUES...






Almost at the end! Just a little on encounters, Initiative, and probably unarmed combat (which is gonna be super simple).

There have been some comments where I attention whor... I mean also posted my house rules that the combat section is overdetailed, and a little bit anal really. Which I can understand. But as I come from as much RPGing as I do tabletop wargaming, covering the major situations and having a little crunch to sink my tactical teeth in is something I am used to and have come to expect, especially given some of the more powergamey of people I have played with and against over the years.

But this did cause me to ultrastreamline cover and terrain and area effect spells/attacks more than I already planned. But to save time I did Power Stunts and Attribute Checks as pure text. Which means less chances for silly jokes though. Oh well, there is always the final section for that, right?

My AD&D 2nd House Rules Part 5 - Combat Part 2

I'm honestly not sure if I really needed to do this section even as a set of house rules, and if I didn't do it comic styled I could have finished it in, oh 2, maybe 3 paragraphs. But this is sorta fun! I miss doing these photocomic thingies! I used to do them every week just as a silly fun story. Good times, good times...







Next time, cover, terrain, and other wierdness.

My AD&D 2nd House Rules Part 4 - Combat Part 1

I decided to do Combat in a comic style so its easy to see what I explain. It took me nearly 4 hours and I took nearly 40 photos and didn't even do all the pages I could have. So the next week is just gonna be sporadic combat strips, culminating in an entire combat encounter done comic style with full explanations and such!

Why? Because I don't believe in myself. I believe in Kamina who believes in me! GO TEAM GURREN!








The madness has begun!

My AD&D 2nd House Rules Part 3 - Character Class Modifications and Magic

Yes, I know Magic was supposed to be up next. But a little thinking (I know, I should stop having thoughts. All they do is make me miserable. If I quit thinking about things they can't anger or depress me. No wonder so many folks take to booze or other brain deadening things!) made me realize the core classes need a wee tweaking. Its simple, though.

Honest!

And an addendum to the above section:

Multiclassing: For a Multiclassed character to level up, instead of dividing XP, you merely add up ALL the XP needed for every class to level up at once. That is the XP your character needs to advance. Then you advance as normal PHB rules. If you reach a point where a class may no longer be advanced in, you no longer have to worry about it's XP cost.

Example: If you are a Wizard/Thief your XP requirements to level 2 are 2500, and 1250 respectively. Thus you need 3750 XP to go from Level 1 to Level 2.

(This is much simpler and easier than the normal method. Provided people can add and subtract when writing down how much XP they need to go from Level X to Level Y. No need to worry about partial skills and HP since it all advances at once.)


Class Changes:

Warrior Group: Any class or kit in the Warrior group may take Weapon Specialization if they have spent a Perk on it. (Note to self: Add Weapon Specialization to the Perks list when I make the printer friendly version.)

Fighter: Only class that can take Weapon Mastery levels from Combat & Tactics. Fighters also gain an extra weapon proficiency point for free with their every 5 level perks.

(The Fighter needs a little extra OOMPH. I like the idea of spending a Perk on letting the other other Warrior group classes and kits take Specialization if they burn an oh so rare Perk on it. Perks are like Feats after all. Except they aren't handed out like candy.)


Paladins: Paladins' Detect Evil is reduced to Detect Law or Chaos. They now only need a 16 Charisma instead of 17.

(Detect Evil is too powerful and annoying. So it gets a nerf. And 17 CHA to be a Pally is too high, so it gets a little looser too.)


Wizard Group: Wizards have 1 extra Level 1 spell they can cast. Unless allowed otherwise, they still may not be able to have more than 5 Level 1 spells to cast per day. All Wizard Group characters can learn as many spells per level as they want, and have no chance of failing to learn them. (See Magic for more information.)

(Wizards are the most unbearably BORING characters to play till level 5 or so when they can start casting Fireball and other impressive spells. Being a 1 or 2 shot artillery piece until then is kinda lame. The extra L1 spell gives them a quick pick me up where they need it, but goes away later on when they become nasty, scary, engines of destruction. The unlimited learning of spells is mostly a streamlining thing.)


Rogue Group: Rogues ignore Tables 27-29. Rogues unless specified otherwise may use any weapon they wish.

(The tables just add too many new modifiers to worry about and weaken the Rogue group in the long run and they are already the weakest class overall. Being allowed to fight comfortably in their armor, and use any weapon they choose gives them a little balance bump. Plus Basic D&D never really cared about armor or racial penalties/bonuses. And when it comes down to it, BASIC D&D IS TRUTH.)



Magic

Ok, so let's cover Magic now. Since I am feeling randy!

Its basically the same. Memorize your spells, cast em, and forget em. But it needs some hard and fast simplifying of a few things.

Memorizing: It takes 4 hours of uninterrupted rest to learn all your First and Second Level Spells. Another two for Third and Fourth, another two for Fifth and Sixth, and another two for Seventh and Eighth. It takes an entire 24 hour period of nothing but rest and study to learn Ninth. Note resting also includes meals, study time, ect. It is up to the DM if you can memorize while in overland travel of any sort.

(This is me streamlining spell memorization. Its quick, simple, and makes it easy to figure out.)


Spell Components (V/S/M): These are still required but unless the spell specifies a component that is required and its cost, you are considered to have the needed items "on hand". Somatic components may be used with any non ranged weapon the caster is proficient with.

(Again, its just keeping it all simple. Plus stylish. Sword dancing spell casting is just a cool image. For the Mage willing to spend a Perk on being allowed to wield a sword anyhow..)


Casting: Casting works as written though Segments now work as such: Whenever a caster begins casting a spell, it activates AFTER a number of units have gone in the turn that matches the number of segments the spell has. A caster in a Dexterity modifier order may start casting first to "speed up" casting by letting her teammates do something after as to let more segments pass. As Initiative is rolled at the start of the encounter and stays put till the end of it, this may mean a spell will take until the caster's side goes again. In this case (Usually for high segment casting times with small number of active participants in the fight...), segment casting time spells go off just before the caster's side has their actions again. For multi round spells, from when the caster casts a spell to when it is the caster's turn to do something again counts as a round for timing purposes.

(I wanted spell casting time to stay in because its tactically interesting and made for some fun strategic choices in the old AD&D Gold Box games that so inspired me as a lonely teenager. The way the new combat sequence works will be explained further when I get to Combat. But it seems pretty simple to me. You have a 3 segment casting time? You cast your spell, 3 other units perform actions depending on who is up next, then it activates. If its an 8 segment and there are only 5 total units in the encounter, it goes off before the caster's side gets to perform their actions. EASY!)


Learning Spells: As mentioned, casters can have as many spells in their spellbook as they want, and do not have to make a percentile roll to learn them. However, learning from a scroll destroys the spell on the scroll, and if learning from a spellbook it has a chance to destroy the spell in the book which causes the learner to fail to learn the spell as well. This is done as follows:

Learner's INT Attribute roll, with their roll number lowered by their INT modifier, and raised by the level of the spell. If the roll is successful, the spell is copied to the learner's spellbook. If it is failed, the original spell is destroyed and the learner fails to copy it over. As always for Attribute checks, a natural 20 is an automatic failure.

Example: Grozzo of the Northlands has a 16 INT, which is a +2 modifier. He wishes to learn Ice Storm from Doug. Ice Storm is a Level 4 spell. Grozzo rolls a 14, lowered by 2 for his modifier (or you could say his INT is raised by 2 for the INT check. Same difference!) for a 12. The spell RAISES his roll by 4 to a 16 and he succeeds in copying the spell over.

(This is a quick and fair way of learning spells, AND it keeps rampant spell trading in check. With multiple characters all being able to learn unlimited spells people will be a tad greedy and protective, especially at the higher levels. Which is as it should be!)


Banned Spells: Reincarnation, Raise Dead, Resurrection, Detect Evil

(Death is mostly permanent in my games. Its harder for characters to die given my HP rules, but losing a friend should be a terrible event, and not just an annoyance. Outside of Wishes and maybe Limited Wishes and other such powerhouse things, nobody escapes the Reaper. Plus it doesn't make sense from a storytelling and realism factor. So best to remove it altogether. Not too many Wizards are gonna go through hoops to cast Wish for some smelly adventurers after all!)

Wow! 2 more sections covered.

My AD&D 2nd House Rules Part 2 - Character Generation/Advancement

I am doing these two bits together as neither one of them is that complex or that complicated. Or that long. However, some of my decisions are also based on the campaign style I plan to run, which is "troupe" style. A reminder that I will probably alternate between AD&D 1 and 2 terms for the core 4 classes.

The basics of character generation are the same. 4d6 take 3 highest, assign in any slot you want. However I am using the Basic D&D 2 for 1 deal with some tweaks. STR, DEX, INT, and WIS may have 2 points subtracted to add 1 point to any other stat.

(This is just quick, easy, and eases the pain of a really bad roll.)


Maximum Hit Points for 1-3rd level characters, roll from there on, but 1s become 2s.

(I don't like early level player characters dying to stupid bad luck. Max HPs for the first 3 levels gives them a little buffer, and the 1s become 2s guarantee a name level Fighter will have at minimum 42 HPs. In regular AD&D and D&D its just too easy to die! I would bet many people who love the idea of RPGs quit playing the minute they lost their first character. The Basic sets sold in huge quantities, possibly in the low millions. How many active RPGers are there today? Yeah. Heroic adventure doesn't mean dying to a house cat.)


Level 1 characters roll as normal for gold, all using PHB rules for such. Level 2-3 get maximum starting gold. Gear and equipment is taken from PHB/Combat & Tactics (Armor and standard gear from the former, weapons from the latter.) even if the character is from another world with specialized gear choices. In the event the class or race gets special equipment from their lands, they may buy it initially but will have to either have the skills to make replacement gear, or pay someone to do it for them.

(This keeps gear simple, but allows the massive choice in weapons from Combat & Tactics. For the racial and class stuff, this allows your Kender to have their Hoopaks and your Samurai to have their Katanas. However they better either know how to make their own replacements, or hope to heck they can find these rare weapons here in the Forgotten Realms. And for Krynn folk they will just have to get used to using gold instead of steel for money. And Dark Sun peoples are just gonna prefer nice reliable steel weapons and armor over the more primitive stuff on Athas anyhow. We can assume they have acclimatized to their new environment before they become PCs.


Common is assumed to be the same language throughout the D&D universe.

(If your PC cannot talk with other PCs why would they be there? This is just keeping it simple.)


Players get three XP levels to build their characters. This can be 1 3rd level, 3 1sts, or a 2nd and a 1st. Outside of special situations the player may NEVER control more than this many characters in the game, and all replacement characters upon PC death come in as this level. (So if your 9th level Wizard dies and he was initially selected as a 2nd level character, your new PC replacement has to be another 2nd level. If your 1st level character makes it to the same and had died instead, your new PC would be 1st level.)

(Getting people to play oldschool games on GASP! a weekday is hard enough. Most modules require 6 Player Characters. Having to sit around most of a game because your sole PC is dead sucks. 1st level characters are generally unfun to play. 1st level Wizards are generally unfun to play. This takes care of all of those problems in one fell swoop.)


Weapon and Nonweapon Proficiencies are used with the exception that ONLY Fighters may Specialize or use Weapon Mastery unless the class/kit specifically mentions being allowed to do so.

(This is because Fighters sort of NEED a little boost. And a Fighter should fight better than a Paladin who has other stuff to learn and do besides just shoving sharp pointy things through soft squishy things that scream and bleed!)


Dual Classing is NOT allowed, but Multiclassing is. Demihumans who single class may advance their Prime Requisite's bonus in extra levels beyond their maximum. This is only for Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, and Thief classes. (Thus a character with a 14 in STR, which is a +1 modifier, could be one level higher as a single classed Fighter.)

(Dual Classing is slow and complicated. Multiclassing is a nice option for the longer lived Demihuman races. The Prime Requisite thing loosens the belt of the already improved level limits from AD&D 1 and Basic to 2nd ed. I really don't care if Gary wanted things Human centered. Lots of people love these other races more than playing a Human. Hell, White Wolf has founded its own niche about people NOT playing humans for the most part!)


Race and Class selections: Any 2nd edition race, class, or kit may be selected provided the DM has the chance to look over the race and class first. From 1st edition Dragonlance Adventures and Oriental Adventures characters are allowed excepting the Orders of High Sorcery, Barbarians, and Ninjas.

(There will be more modified or disallowed choices as I see what my players pick out. The DL Orders of High Sorcery are too tied to Krynn, a little too complex, and the basic fact there is no way for them to be legally trained on Toril anyhow. Barbarians were always terrible in 1st ed AD&D as they effectively can't even work with spellcasters till 5th level or so. Ninjas are a wierd multi class thing that is again too complicated for what they bring to the table. I may see how Complete Book of Ninjas does it though and allow them however.)


Alignments for PCs are Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, and Lawful Neutral.

(I like heroic games. The lesser alignments are mostly picked by PCs in order to be jerks, and not to try to actually roll play an interesting character. Plus in a troupe system this eases up having to worry about one player's character doing things his other characters would not approve of as much. I would honestly prefer to just use Palladium's alignment system which is more realistic, has better guidelines and such, but daring to copy it would bring the wrath of Seimbeida's insanely protective IP policies, and would require more DM houseruling and converting for classes and modules. And my house rules are there to streamline and codify what I want to do with AD&D. Not to add more stuff that isn't needed.)


Until Name Level, PCs do not need to pay to train up a level, though they do need 24 hours to reflect on what they have learned with no serious interruption or in a dangerous position. For name level it takes one whole month, and 10,000 gold pieces.

(I hate training times and costs for advancement, but don't want DING GRATZ of an MMORPG either. We will assume that PCs are practicing and are actually advancing subtly all the time. Its just one day after a lot of rest and thinking things over they put all they have learned into action! For name level its much more important. You MATTER now. You can be a leader of men, a living legend. A land holding minor noble. This takes time and money. Its basically saying your PC is taking care of all of these things behind the scenes and it takes a good month. You get to know the right people, and do the right things. It should probably be more roleplayed than just handwaved, but this is better for troupe play or people who don't care that much. And some of it could still be collaborated between the DM and player for new plots and story hooks.)


At Levels 5, 10, 15, and 20 PCs gain a single perk. These perks are nifty abilities which make your character stand out.
These perks will include:
Fast Casting (Reduce casting time by 2 segments.)
Evasive Casting (Be allowed DEX bonus while casting a spell.)
Nimble Charge (Be allowed to charge without going in a straight line.)
Point Blank Fighting (Be allowed to use ranged weapons and pole arms in base to base fighting.)
Attribute Point Gain
Trusted Companion (A new playable character who does not get to take perks, but is otherwise a new PC to use. Starts 5 levels below the PC selecting this perk, though choosing it at 5th level gives you a 1st level. Must be the same class as the PC.)
Inherited Weapon or Armor (+1 Weapon, Shield, or Armor allowing for gear normally not found in the campaign. Can be taken multiple times to boost the same item.)
New Weapon Training (Allowed to use 1 weapon your class normally is prohibited from learning at the DM's approval. Must still take the proficiency to use it however.)
Shield Training (Either be allowed Bucklers, or gives larger shields +1 AC if already allowed to use shields.)
Armor Training (Allowed to use next best armor your class is normally prohibited from using without any penalties, or reduces Movement penalty by 1 square (or 1 inch or 5 feet..) for one selected armor type.)

(Players like mechanical rules to differentiate their PC from others. This is a simple, and not too overpowering way of doing so. It won't satisfy your average D20 Fighter Playing Powergaming Feat Fiend, but its enough for most folks I hope! Plus the ten I chose add some logical realism to AD&D and its sometimes silly class equipment restrictions without being silly.)



Well, there we go for installment number two! Next time: Magic. Already we are 100 pages into the Black Book 2nd edition PHB. A lot either stays the same or just is ignored in my rules. My choices try to keep the game as close to what it already is, with only the fat and gristle removed. Combat and some of the adventuring sections are gonna be the biggest changed areas.

I am debating if I will change anything in the classes, mainly the Paladin's Detect Evil ability, and Thief armor penalties. Most likely Detect Evil will be nerfed a bit, and armor penalties for Thieves dropped entirely due to being more pointless meh. Not to mention Thieves need a little boost IMHO.

My AD&D 2nd House Rules Part 1 - Attributes

This post will probably be updated over the coming weeks, provided the campaign actually happens.

As mentioned, 2nd edition is being used because there is SO MUCH available for it, and its flexible enough to make it do basically what I want to do.

The foundation is really more Basic D&D than AD&D however. My actual goal is for these house rules to be the primary rules referred to in active play. Its effectively shrinking D&D to a DM screen level of actual required rules, with the books mostly reference for equipment, what a class or race can do, the spell lists, ect.

As I put in my house rules, I will try to explain why I am doing it like this.

For attributes we will use Basic D&D stats for bonuses.

Since we will be going over 18, I had to decide how I wanted the further values to go..

Attribute Number Modifier STR Weight Allowances
3 -3 6/8
4-5 -2 11/17
6-8 -1 30/60
9-12 None 45/90
13-15 +1 55/115
16-17 +2 80/150
18-19 +3 130/210
20-21 +4 180/260
22-23 +5 235/310
24-25 +6 335/410

Note: For Single Class characters with level limits the modifier adds that many additional levels to the limit.

With my allowances for other races and such, I had to allow the higher stats. This will affect the individual attributes quite a bit. Not to mention the chart above is the foundation of my house rules. Everything depends on the little chart. Its also great because it streamlines the slow and confusing chart hell AD&D had. Plus none of that FIGHTERS ONLY stat stuff. Fighters get Weapon Specialization and Mastery to make up for it.

Strength
Modifier used for To Hit and Damage.
Strength Value cross referenced with Light Encumbrance value in Players Option: Combat & Tactics for maximum carried weight with no penalties, and maximum weight limits with half move penalties.

This is SIMPLE, FAST, and logical. The Light Encumbrance weight is what could logically be carried around in dangerous situations without causing much affect on the adventurer. Armor is going to be the arbiter of what your actual movement is. Its weight counts against total gear carried as well. I had to eyeball and average the weights from the Combat & Tactics chart to fit my stat levels. This will also allow for the logical times people need to carry their buddies out of danger and other such things. All the other stuff is really irrelevant or can just be done via a stat check on a D20 with difficulty modifiers. (Bend Bars, Lift Gates, Open Doors. Cheap wooden door? Roll equal or under STR on a D20 with a minus 4 to your roll. Slam open a giant metal door? +6 to your roll. Ill explain more on this later on.)

Dexterity
Reaction Adjustment Ignored. Missile Attack and Armor Class Adjustment as chart above. Modifier also counts when character acts in combat.

Its simple again. The combat part will be explained in my combat section. But the short of it is Intitiative will be per side. However in each side you act based on your Dexterity Modifier. This mostly matters for my simplified spellcasting time rule.

Constitution
Only counts for Hit Point modifier and maximum number of negative HP a character can take before dying.

Again, its simple. There is none of that extra stuff to deal with. No Raise Dead in my campaign because its unrealistic and stupid. Only Wishes or Reincarnation will bring someone back.

Intelligence
Number of extra languages and number of extra Nonweapon Proficiencies at First Level.

Again, SIMPLE.

Wisdom
Modifier affects Magic Spell saving throw, and single bonus Divine spell per level. (Modifier number means what is the maximum spell level the Priest class spell user gains one bonus spell of. So a +3 means that Cleric has one extra First, Second, and Third level spell.)

This is just fast, simple, and happy.

Charisma
Modifier affects Reaction Adjustment if being used.

This one doesn't affect my game as Reaction Adjustment or Morale won't be used anyhow. Its something I would prefer to roleplay or logic out.


As you can see, I pretty much stuck to what Basic D&D used in Attribute bonuses, but with some nods to how AD&D does it.
I think the stats can be quickly memorized plus what they are good for.

That was pretty simple. Next time: Character Generation

Canon and Rules as Written

Over at http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/08/muddled-and-confused.html the writer is doing a series of posts about the covers and to a lesser extent the content of the entire D&D corebooks line since Original D&D. In the comments section a discussion about freedom vs "following the book" has come up. I am reposting my thoughts from that because its some rather important things I think most people really should heed when running and playing in an RPG. It it seems a little jumpy its taken from the discussion in the blog post above. I cut and pasted my parts I thought were worth saving and sharing.

I've always been a "fluff" gamer. Gimme the information overload (yet keep the rules simple, streamlined, and elegant!) on the setting, the peoples, the world.

Then I can gleefully use it or twist it into whatever horrible pretzel shape I choose.

Cool players won't mind. I've thrown Innsmouth pretty much as written (outside of automobiles anyhow) into Dragonlance and the big DL fan didn't complain a bit.

My players gave me a statement of truth: You are the GM.

Obviously you have to make it logically fit, but any good GM can use or change anything he wants to fit his campaign world.

I guess I am wierd when it comes to D&D. I consider Mentzer Basic THE book any new RPGer should pick up. (The only game that could be better is D6 Star Wars, which might be one of the best RPGs ever made, even if it gets wonky at high power levels. Call of Cthulhu is in the best ever running too, but its NOT a novices game at all.)

Even though I am not very fond of the old school D&D mechanics in general, I absolutely adore the "feel and charm" of AD&D1, and the worlds and fluff of AD&D2.

OD&D I own all but the Gods book, but I don't see the point in a toolkit. Mainly because I end up with something like Castles & Crusades anyhow.

Even if my next campaign will probably be AD&D2 with Basic stat advances and almost every race and class from both AD&D editions. A little from Skills & Powers Combat, a little from Battlesystem 2, a little from Rules Cyclopedia...

Now if only the Troll Lords would do a big book of races and classes so I could just start converting classic and neo classic modules over.

I think its more gamers than the books who sort of enforce this behavior, though I cannot disagree that the later era RPGs tend to push this sort of thing subtly.

Its funny how the same audience who insist on writing fanfic and fanart, much of which is rather... deviant shall we say have trouble with any level of freedom or change.

I've even seen people in fan circles insist THEIR totally unsubstantiated and totally against canon source interpetations to be the correct one and then they proceed to verbally berate and harass anyone who dissents.

A lesser example I saw myself when I joined into a White Wolf game once. My character had a silver weapon, as he was from a campaign where Werewolves and Vampires were fighting together against really bad world destroying stuff. (I can't help it. I like people uniting against the great darkness. Its my comics and anime influences showing through..) Well I took my NPC into this game. When he was revealed to have said weapon the Wolf players in this game FREAKED OUT as if I had broken some great taboo. By their interpretation its mere proximity to their PCs would cause negative effects.

Yet by the rulesbooks it DID NOT. Here we have the other PCs pooing bricks and the GM is looking up to confirm. Once it was found I told the GM I would be happy with whichever way he wanted to run it as it was his game. I was the only one who seemed to be more interested in how the GM wanted to run things than the book or the group concensus.

FRACK CANON IF IT MESSES WITH YOUR GAME.

Gaming is supposed to be about fun. Its not a peenwaving contest. Its not a competition. Its sure as hell not a good way to pick up girls. (A good way to repel them maybe...)

If we just want to level up and not affect or change anything and follow someone else's lame-o story there are plenty of console RPGs available out there.

Why try to deal with scheduling and people conflicts and the time and expense to read all these blasted overpriced rulesbooks otherwise?

Some random D&D game and forum thoughts

Over at the blog Grognardia, there was a topic about the problems of D&D. Meh. We all know Gary Gygax said some weird stuff in Dragon Magazine back in the day that totally doesn't sound like the kindly gentleman with the dark sense of humor many gamers have interacted with or heard stories about in the Internet era. Fine and dandy. However, the comments section (you know, that thing my blog doesn't really get. Maybe if it was less game diary stuff and I tried posting mini essays and all it would be different. But I am who I am.) people brought up things like "You old schoolers need to DEFINE what Original Dungeons & Dragons is", and how the retro crowd should stop hiding at sites like Dragonsfoot and the Knights and Knaves Alehouse and talk more at big sites like ENWorld.

This was my response with some basic info on why and how I got into Basic D&D and love it so much. I've probably posted in this blog why I love it so much before now, and I am sure I will do it again. Even if according to my Yahoo Group, MagicDrew loves 3.X D&D and is seriously meh on Basic. I keep trying to explain to my gamegroup our initial RPG campaign wasn't good because it was D20 D&D. It was IN SPITE OF IT. But for most of them it was their first RPG, or at least the first campaign and you always remember your first time, and usually think it was much better and more magical than it was.

Hmm.. I sorta explained it there a bit didn't I?

Interesting topic, though I am not sure the comments about DFooters or K&Kers going to ENWorld is an apt thing. Most forums turn into groupthink.

Try having a 4channer or Something Awful goon use their style of posting at RPGnet. Or vice versa. The style and mannerisms of those forums are set in stone, and would generally clash with the other place, for good or ill.

Its sort of why people go to those retro RPG sites in the first place. The more modern RPG sites are pro modern D&D and tend to be rather dismissive of the older games. (Or in ENWorld's case, probably any RPG that doesn't have the D20 logo on it and the magic words Dungeons and Dragons.)

People want to go to places where their line of thinking is at least on the same wavelength.

Of course this leads to forums like No Mutants Allowed and RPG Codex which seem to loathe anything Bethesda Softworks does with a passion. But if it makes em happy to be with folks who hold similar opinions even if an electronic RPG forum that is console oriented would find them to be completely bonkers (and vice versa!), who are we to judge?

(Except in amusing ourselves at THAT OTHER GUY'S expense?)

As to what version of D&D I would be all gaga over? Moldvay-RC Basic with some 2nd ed AD&D classes and stuff brought over.

When did I get this opinion? After 3.5 was released.

I didn't get my first tabletop RPG till 1988 and it was Runequest. (D&D wasn't permitted till 1990 or so. Thanks Pool of Radiance! )

Is it because its oldschool? No, though I do really like the older "feel" Moldvay and later on Mentzer would add. (And Elmore's B&W artwork. Sooo.. awesome..)

If being old is what mattered, my gamegroup's most beloved campaign and intro into D&D would have been AD&D 1st ed instead of D20. But I tried reading AD&D 1st, and the DMG was just full of ... well the kiddies of today would call it FAIL. I disagreed with almost every design decision on every page. (D20 has its own flaws that are just as bad, if not worse. AD&D's little secret is how few of the rules most people actually USED.)

Later on I would realize Basic D&D, which I got Red-Green boxsets for the NES ROB Robot and Gyromite was basically what I wanted all along. Simple and flexible enough for what I wanted to do, and close enough to AD&D 1 and 2 that I could bring all those lovely classes right over.

From my Brain to this Blog..

Over at an RPG forum the brand new Robotech Shadow Chronicles RPG is being discussed. The usual Mega Damage (MDC) thing came up.

In short, Mega Damage is super armor/damage that normal people and technology can't really hurt. Your average Player Character would be vaporized by a single MD point, since Structural Damage (SDC) is 1/100th an MD point and your average twinked PC has maybe 40 total SDC points.

This is a strange system, and leads to much abuse and confusion. Why an Armor Penetration/Armor Resistance ruleset wasn't used I don't think we will ever know. (Warhammer 40K's Strength vs Toughness is a massively abstract version of this. A Toughness 3 man is likely to be hurt by a Strength 3 Lasgun. A Toughness 8 Wraithlord mech is all but immune to his fire, and vehicles are an armor value starting at 10 and going up, beaten by rolling a D6 and adding the weapon's Strength. Meaning that Strength 3 Lasgun can't hurt even the lightest of tanks, but a Strength 9 Lascannon will all but vaporize the hapless man and turn light vehicles to scrap without little effort, and can penetrate up to 15 armor, though 14 is the known maximum.)

Well, one fellow was mentioning his more Robotech cartoon like house rules, which were pretty decent. Upping damage, lowering personal armor to fit in closer to the show and common sense, ect. (A guy in a non powered armored suit shouldn't have 1/3rd the MDC of a jet fighter.)

Now these were good ideas, but my idea is something I may use should my gamegroup play Robotech sometime soon: (Note I tweak one of the house rules the fellow used to fit my idea. His idea lead me to my idea!) 10% of the original armor's stats are base, and the rest is the character's SDC converted over to MDC with MD damage also being SD personal damage. (Cyclone armor would be on top of this and would split the damage 50/50.

So a dude who takes a 25 point MDC hit to his armor is losing 25 points to said armor, and is internally taking 25 points of SDC damage as well. If his original Hit Points was 10, and his SDC is 23 and he is wearing armor that originally as written provided 50 MDC, his armor's MDC is 28. 28 points of MDC will destroy the armor, leaving him with 5 Hit Points. You could also take the current Palladium armor rule where even 1 remaining MDC point has to be destroyed before the wearer is gonna take MD and die to its less munchkiny logical course. Sure, that 1 MDC point as written can take UNLIMITED damage and the wearer still lives until next turn as the armor is now NO MORE IT HAS CEASED TO BE, but that SDC damage could still kill him.

An example: Joe Shmuck is the fellow above with 10 HP, 23 SDC, and the 5 points MDC armor with his 23 SDC converted into MDC giving his armor an effective 28 points. He is hit for a whopping 40 MDC in damage. Maybe an Invid was lucky. Now his armor takes 28 points by my house rule, but AS WRITTEN IN CURRENT PALLADIUM RULEBOOKS that extra 12 MDC goes poof and does nothing. If we play it my way, the MDC doesn't blow in as usual. But the hapless wearer is STILL taking the 12 SDC of internal hits from the impact and whatnot. However Joe only has 33 total SDC points he can take meaning he is totally fragged and there probably isn't anything left of him or his armor that is recognizable.

Which makes sense considering 20-60 FOOT TALL ROBOT GUNS firing at a 2 meter tall human should usually leave that human dead regardless of whatever armor he is wearing. Joe's skill at evading hits (remember we aren't considering his SDC to be TRUE LIFE FORCE, more skill at not getting serious injury..) isn't enough to save him from the big nasty cannon designed to blow up BIG ROBOTS. Even in Warhammer 40K a big badass Space Marine can't take a hit from an anti tank weapon and live unless its more dumb luck and the weapon really misses him or just glances.

If it was a Cyclone, 20 points of MDC would go to the Cyclone armor which we shall leave as written, and only 20 would go to his personal armor the Cyclone fits on top of, meaning he would only be taking 20 SDC. He is in trouble and another hit of any sort is gonna turn him into a big smear on the pavement, but his transforming motorcycle and his combat experience merely grazed the bike, but his luck is running out!

Now if Joe had 31 SDC, he would have lived. 36 MDC for the armor and it still would have been shredded. (Again, ITS A BIG GUN DESIGNED TO DESTROY LARGE THINGS THAT WEIGH TONS NOT 200 POUND MAN.) However, with his Hit Points (And if I haven't mentioned, Hit Points are Palladium's actual "Life Force you are taking ACTUAL PAINFUL HURTS" thingie.) and SDC he now has 41 total points, leaving him with 1 total Hit Point left, no armor, and a big scary robot about to turn him into paste should he not run for cover, surrender, play dead, or hope his buddies can pull him out of the fire so he can go to the medics and take a 2 week nap. His skill in combat was as such he saw the BIG SHOT and jumped behind some light cover, ducked, or something that kept him from taking a direct hit which would be fatal to any normal human being. However, even a close miss or a light hit is enough to put him out of any meaningful action for quite some time.

You know, I like this rule. I am excited about it! I now want my copy of Robotech: Shadow Chronicles from Palladium to get here faster so I can run this.

I do like me some Cyclone Mospeada Ride Armor after all:

(If we use it in the examples above, the 40 point hit would have taken out one of the shoulderpads. A killing hit would be a dead center hit, which even the heavier bike armor isn't gonna block. A higher SDC pilot is gonna lose an engine or take a serious mechanical hit that ruins the bike and he comes crashing to the ground, no longer jumping about like Rand here is, meaning he is gonna feel that landing, and the Cyclone is effectively totalled.)

Its taking the generic D&D Hit Points as a measure of skill, luck, endurance, glancing hits, and karma as opposed to true damage absorbing life force. Your character's improving SDC for level ups affects the armor you wear. It makes so much sense I kind of wonder why Palladium hasn't used it. Its still the kludgy Palladium MDC shenanigans, but now it actually feels more realistic in the setting and rules provided.

Edit: The rulebook showed up today. A cursory evaluation says Hit Points go up per level. Well NARF. Ok, HP doesn't go up in level in my houserule then, SDC does. CRISIS AVERTED. Also, the actual armor seems to be 120 points for personal REF armor, so dudes would get 12 plus their SDC converted to MDC.

A good article on casual versus hardcore...

http://malstrom.50webs.com/birdman.html

A damned good article, and it looks to have a boatload of truth to it.

It even points out how the accessible stuff leads to the more complex things.

And how too much "me too" leads to "screw you". (Hell, I used to play a lot of MMORPGs, FPSes, and RTSes. Now the genres are so prevalent I pretty much LOATHE them outside of a few select titles.)

Just take SHMUPS for example. Tons of people to this day continue to play Galaga. The amount playing "Loli Bullet Hell Adventures" is probably 1% that. The old SHMUPS were easy, accessible, and fun while still giving a good challenge. The games kept trying to appease the hardcore by getting tougher and more complicated, eventually killing the genre. You can see the same in Fighting games too. Too many of them all competing for an ever decreasing ever more nichey hardcore who demand more, with few "gateway games" to bring newbies in, and what few there were rarely found the audience or were too far from the mainstream titles.

You can even see it in tabletop games. It is the REAL reason wargames went from selling 50,000-250,000 of most major releases to being a breakout hit if they sell 1000 copies. They went from a variety of easy and fun games like Ogre/GEV, Gettysburg Anniversary Edition, and even the more complex Squad Leader into stuff like Advanced Squad Leader and Starfleet Battles which were so complicated that almost nobody outside of an ever decreasing ever more demanding group (there they are again!) even bothered. The people who might like to shoot up some starships on a board is probably decently high. The amount who care about Electronic Counter Measures and Electronic Counter-Counter Measures (something Starfleet Battles has) is MUCH lower. I am a gamer and I don't care about it! Imagine your average nongamer or mildly interested person!

Which is how come the Eurogames like Catan and its ilk came in and swept the market, being incredibly HUGE in Europe, and having a rather dedicated fanbase in the US. I can get most total nongamers to play Catan. These people probably wouldn't approach most hobby games at all. And some of them might be slowly brought into playing more involved titles.

The part about players feeling like they don't suck counts too. When I play a modern SHMUP, I always feel like I suck. Its just not fun. Its too hard and I cannot even come to grips with it. If Guitar Hero and Rock Band only started on Medium I would have probably returned the game the very day I bought it. Because missing notes makes me feel like I suck. But i can play it on Easy which is a hell of a lot of fun for me and I have gotten pretty good on it. Some of my friends are the same way. The guy who was in Band in high school was good enough and had the desire and he usually plays at Medium, and has begun to play on Hard.

Ease of use. Start small, go big ONLY IF YOU REALLY WANT TO.

Its why Magic the Gathering is such a god awful game these days. Its almost always too complicated, and especially unless you are playing people of the same card access and skill level as yourself you ALWAYS FEEL LIKE YOU SUCK, since most Magic gamegroups are built of tourney players with badass decks who have no reservations about stomping you. Old Magic was kinda fun. Not as many rules and complexities, and far more casual gamers playing it.

Easily accessible games where even the newbies have a chance do much better. I rarely win Catan, but I have fun and most people who play it even when they lose always want MORE. I taught people Ogre/GEV, I lost because I was outplayed and my players are interested enough to play it again.

Overly complicated titles for an ever decreasing audience who are happy (until they reach their breaking/boredom point and leave anyhow!) isn't the way to go. Gaming NEEDS the sort of disruptions Nintendo in electronic gaming and Eurogames are in tabletop games.

Tuesday Game Reports

This week was another Heroquest week. Given my usual luck with the game, my Troubador died within 15 minutes of starting a dungeon that took a good 2 hours to complete, ending what little desire I had to play this game. It wasn't anyone's fault, just bad luck. But when something is THIS frustrating, there is little point in ruining everyone else's fun by playing and being miserable so I went from playing and doing some MUCH needed painting, to just painting.

While Pico took it as a bit insulting, it wasn't anything of the sort. 4 of the characters were long lived and were relatively high powered. He had to base the challenges to give them something to do. My support character was more recent, being the fourth character I had and totally unsuited to a mission where I couldn't be a supporter given random teleporting rooms filled with monsters. Actually, any low level character was doomed from the start in this one. MagicDrew's Elf died and he had to make up a new character who fell in the next mission, meaning for the final 3 missions he either has to hide behind everyone, doing NOTHING, or get stuck in and probably die due to being completely outclassed.

Its a flaw of the genre as I have mentioned in a previous post. Missme's Barbarian is an unstoppable juggernaut of doom and asskicking. However what she can handle with minor trouble spells instant death for a new character of any sort. If I were to go back I would take out the level system I made entirely. Long term survival just throws game balance off and after a certain point it just makes it POINTLESS for any new character to join in. It would be like running a Dungeons & Dragons game and making players roll up level 1 characters when the majority of the party is level 8 or higher. The level 1 simply has no place being there, has nothing to actually do (because higher levels do it better or can actually survive the threats they face), and mostly sits around leeching XP for hours on hours till they approach a point in being able to contribute.

And while the XP system in Basic D&D makes this ALMOST bearable (It takes roughly as much XP to go from level 8 to 9 as it does from level 1 to level 7. A fighter in Moldvay/Cook Basic needs to go from 120,000 to 240,000 to level up. A level 1 character needs 120,000, the same amount, to get to level 8, meaning if they gain the same amount of XP the newbie will be one level behind.), it still means there is massive amounts of downtime where the newbie is literally useless baggage. Not fun for the newbie or the high level babysitters. (If we are to assume 10 sessions of adventure to level up at this advanced stage, it means roughly 12000 xp per session. If unlimited levelling up is allowed (and most of the time any excess xp to take a PC up 2 levels is discarded, leaving them 1 xp away from the 2nd level up..) the newbie would hit level 4 the first session, and be half the adventurer everyone else is discounting not having the improved equipment everyone else has. Session 2 would bring him up to level 5, still mostly useless though almost capable of doing something helpful. Session 3 would bring him up to level 6, and now after 15 hours or so of being little more than baggage the player can actually fight alongside his pals. 3 more sessions to bring him to a level 7 (And hopefully some better equipment by this point. Maybe +1 gear the higher level PCs have outgrown, maybe a +2 here and there.) and he can actually give a decent accounting for himself and not hide behind everyone.

This of course is what is happening in our Heroquest game but at a much faster clip. If the GM shows pity for the newbie, he is cheating the player and giving the advanced characters little challenge. Yet on the other side, the newbie character's player is unlikely to have much fun or contribute much to the game.

In other words, I BLEW IT AND I AM SORRY.

The level up system I came up with simply doesn't fit Heroquest at all. It throws off what little balance there is in this largely luck driven game. Level ups plus treasure and equipment plus a few players having bad luck leads to completely thrown off gameplay. If everyone stays alive it can work fine. If everyone dies it also works fine. If more than a third of the group constantly live or die it all goes to Hell.

Which is what happened. And I didn't think about that part. Now, throwing in majority level lower level starts for replacement characters could reduce this somewhat (maybe 100GP per level and newbies start 2 levels lower than the party average rounded down?), but its still a clusterfrack any way you look at it.

AWW SH!% SIR, I *&^KED UP.

But on the upside I got to get some painting done, and it gave me fodder for this post. Its something all game designers need to look at. Just what DO YOU DO when new players join in to a persistent game? Letting them start out on par with players who "earned" their current status isn't fair, yet forcing them to work their way up from the bottom when the gameplay is much further along and the competition is harder isn't fair either.

And I hope Pico doesn't decide never to GM again because of it. It happens. It wasn't anybody's fault. Its a game problem that almost every GM has to face. I just chose to sit out losing any more characters ( 4 corpses is enough for any one person I think! ) and continue painting. Everyone else is having fun, why the hell should I ruin everyone else's time because my bright idea mucked everything up? I get to do some painting in a manner that doesn't totally suck. I hate painting. Its a waste of time. I would rather do other things. If someone is running a game even when I am participating I can listen and contribute and do something else while I am at it that otherwise I wouldn't do much of. I live alone and tend to be lonely most of the time. I am happy to have the company over. I had no problem painting and letting everyone else continue to have fun and smashinate monsters. I was having bad luck and it was no point in ANYONE being miserable over it.

Heck, I want more people to run things so I can get some painting done while we play. It might be the only way I ever get any painting done! :P

I got some color on some LotR minis, 2 more Heroquest missions got completed. We all got to socialize and chat and such. We all learned some things about game design due to this blog post.

Seems like a fine day to me!

Magic the Gathering: Worst Game Ever?

Its so popular you say. It makes Wizards of the Coast money hand over fist you say.

Well, its extreme popularity has done massive damage to the gaming industry as a whole, but that sort of discussion can wait till when I rag on Dungeons & Dragons.

Its the game design itself that is incredibly broken.

Quick answer: You can go infinite.
Long answer: Magic's whole game design is based around utterly crippling, demolishing, destroying, and ruining the other player. The best decks and the whole point of deck design is to make the most unstoppable deck possible, rendering the other player helpless.

No tactics or luck can save them. A good Magic deck is like playing the original Quake where you have an aimbot, noclip, quad damage, 200 health, and the rocket launcher, and your opponent has: the axe.

The game design is not about skill, talent, or luck. Its about grabbing the most effective deck design you can off the net, wasting piles of money to get the cards of which you should always pull the same combo every time, or mulligan until you get it.

If both players have megadecks its more like a solo game where you have to wait for the other side. Eventually one side pulls their I win setting and takes it all.

Magic is effectively broken. Why do you think they have to keep coming up with shit like Type X, leagues, and drafting? (Which means all those cards you bought beforehand cannot be used. FORK OVER THE CREDIT CARD FOOLS!)
Because playing it as it was originally designed pretty much failed about 6 hours after its debut at Gencon. (Another topic I need to get into one of these days. Gencon and how overrated and irrelevant it really is to tabletop gaming.) About 16 years of cards and its all pointless.

Its not balanced, its not skill based. Its MONEY based. Which makes the above gameflaws even worse. And its main draw is tournament play, which sucks whatever possible fun is there out in a flurry of powergamer hell.

I have rarely if ever felt I lost a Magic game due to playing poorly or bad luck. Its always due to the other player having some unstoppable combo.

If a starter deck doesn't stand a chance against beating a tournament deck, even if its just a 1 in 5 chance (and they don't!), its not a good game design.

Its a game designed to suck money out of people and make socially inept retards feel better by "pwning" people who don't feel like dropping 100s of bucks every quarter to stay current. Or spend less but effectively get 1-2 months of use from their existing cards before the current draft cycle is up.

A GOOD game design should always have victory be 2/3rds strategy, 1/3rds luck. A new player should have a chance against a veteran, especially if the vet underestimates the newbie and that newbie plays it smart. Most likely the new player is gonna lose, but see what he or she did wrong and want a rematch. The newbie will feel it was her fault for making a bad move or that his victory was due to some really shoddy rolls on the veteran's part.

Either way, they will want to give it another go.

Many Eurogames have such philosophies behind them. A casual player can beat an experienced one. I rarely if ever win Settlers of Catan, but I was either outplayed because I wasn't paying attention to what the victor did, too busy getting vengeance on whoever slighted me in game (politics is HUGE in Catan), I had a poor initial setup, or the dice just weren't with me. Maybe it was a mix.

But I ALWAYS feel like I have a chance to win.

In Magic and most CCGs after a certain point, that feeling of "If this had only happened I coulda been a contendah!" goes away. Because you know your deck never had a chance because you didn't spend enough money or copied some deck design.

Collectible games companies know there are enough dupes who will just spend more to try to catch up as opposed to realizing they shouldn't even had bothered in the first place.