The new game, pt 2

Well, so far, things have gone poorly.

Duri, the "chosen one" and his three henchmen were only able to attract two heroes to aid him on this quest.

Lots of random stuff in this game.   Duri and the two new heroes, Valdir the elf Thief and Caesar the Human Fighter, are the only 8th level PCs with Duri's henchmen being a 6th level Cleric, a 4th level MU and a 2nd lvl Thief.

They set out on the road with the dwarves walking, the Human riding a horse and the Elf driving a horse and cart.  The dwarves were insulted when offered by the Elf to be put in back of the wagon, claiming they were not some bags of luggage to be bandied about. (especially by an Elf).

About 2 hours down the road, from the West side of the road, a group of 8 ogres attacked the party.  The party prevailed with the dwarf henchmen needing only little attention from the Cleric.

They continued to travel for about 4 more hours when a group of 20 berserkers (human) came running at them from the direction of the town ahead of the party (that they are heading to to learn more from the Temple of Jormungadr).

Duri's party again won the day with some good bit of aid needed by the henchmen and chose to camp before entering town.

That night, during the Elf's watch, a pack of 15 werewolves attacked the camp.  Daleen, the dwarf MU panicked and ran from the area, pursued by 6 of the werewolves.

Things did not go well for the party with everyone slain except for Duri and Caesar.  They were left at low and meager hit points themselves.  They now need to find another Cleric who can help them before they become werewolves themselves.

The two survivors finally made their way to an Inn just outside of town that seemed safe and they could get some much needed rest.

After a couple of good nights rest, they two convened in the main room of the Inn and conspired to find a way into the town.  They had learned by generously tipping the innkeeper that the novitiates and other members of the Temple of Jormungadr in the town were all wound up about a company of dwarves coming toward the town and that the Temple Masters had sent ogres, berserkers and werewolves after the dwarves already, trying to kill them.

Not realizing these two were all that were left of the dwarves the Temple was seeking, the innkeeper was pressed into unwittingly assisting the duo into getting an Orc novitiate drunk and abducted him, tying him to a chair to interrogate him.

They dealt with the Orc in a gruesome manner, but not more gruesome than he would have treated them. and began to execute their plan to have Caesar use a polymorph-self potion and enter the temple disguised as the Orc novitiate, learn what he can and get out again. 

We wait now to see where this leads Duri and Caesar.

Getting Back In The Game

It's been awhile.  Due to some rainy days recently, the bee activity has slowed down for me and we are going to play a game this weekend.

It's just the two of us, my son and I, but that's OK, we have enough imagination between us for at least 6 people.

Just for chits and giggles, we decided to run a quick game that is fairly random at heart.

Using 4d6, lose the lowest die, in a row to generate stats, then determine class then determine class randomly based on stats and choosing race, etc.. randomly as well, we are building a small but capable party.  The only thing not random is that all new characters will be 8th level.

Using a random adventure generator I made up, I determined that this is a quest.

Here's the set up...

Thor's hammer Mjolnir has been stolen somehow by Jormungadr the serpent and hidden in a far off temple in a land called Paludem.  There, a group of special Lizard Men keep guard over the hammer.

To start things off, Tyr, the god of Law and War has sent a Valkrye to Norland, a land in the North of Terra Ursa where my gaming takes place.  The Valkrye is a messenger form Tyr to a chosen hero from the people of Norland who are followers of the Norse deities.

The Chosen One in this case is the Captain of the  Courthouse Guard which is specifically dedicated to Tyr and his guidance.  Duri, the dwarf is told to assemble a team of heroes to take with him to find and retrieve the great hammer of Thor.  He must return it to the Great Temple of Tyr back in Norland so that Tyr can return it to Thor who has somehow become unable to travel himself to this Plane due to Jormungadr's malicious plan.

If Duri can find, retrieve and return the hammer before Thor is permanently harmed, Tyr can help Thor to defeat the plot and be returned to health and power.  If not, Thor may not succeed and Jormungadr may finally succeed in causing Ragnarok to start prematurely.  The team has 90 days (game time) to return the hammer.

The team will be made up of our newly created PC's who will assist Duri in his task.  They do not know where the hammer is hidden but will come upon clues and even some help if they work things right.  If so, they will eventually travel far to the South to Paludem to the Temple of Set (who is collaborating with Jormungadr) and steal or fight their way through hundreds of Lizard Men and many To Be Determined enemies that have been assigned the task of securing and protecting the hammer from Thor and his allies.

Can this team get it done and save the world in time?  We shall soon see.

To use XP or not to use XP, Why do we care?

I just read an article someone posted a link to in a G+ community.  The blog post was talking about doing away with XP progression.

The person who linked to it found it interesting while disagreeing with it at the same time.   I read it and can't say that I agree or disagree with it really. 

The blog post author thinks XP is stupid, troublesome and doesn't really reflect credible reasons to affect level progression.

I say that it really depends on the DM/GM and how they run their game.

For example, what's the intended/desired result of playing the game?   I wrote a post some time ago called "How do you 'Win' AD&D" or something like that.

For players, it's obvious in how you "lose" the game, your character dies.  Game over for that PC.

In that post,  I talked about tying game points to how many "kills" a PC makes in a game adventure.  It doesn't have to be kills, it could be anything the DM has the PC's doing the most in a given session.  Stealing or "recovering" a certain number of things, pieces of gold found and collected by each individual PC, and so on.  The DM is limited only by their imagination in how to get points available to PC's so that Players can accumulate and tally points then "win" a game.


Of course, there are other ways for Players to "Win" a game adventure or session.  Each PC could be in competition with the others in accomplishing a certain ask or mission.  First one to succeed wins.  They get to be listed as "Player of the Week" or something on their groups website or whatever.  Maybe everyone pitches in five buck at the beginning and winner takes the pot at the end.  Who knows really.

What I'm getting to is that depending on what the DM/GM sees as the final objective of the game, how the game is "won" and ends, so to speak, is perhaps the biggest determiner of whether or not XP is needed or desired in their game.

For example, if whoever is the highest level at the end "Wins" then XP for the purpose of level will be very important.

If whoever has the most gold and treasure at the end "Wins", then XP really isn't necessary.  A DM can pretty much determine, based on the challenges placed in the game, what levels the PC's need to be at to even have a chance and start them off appropriately as they decide.  XP not needed, especially if the game is jutst a one shot.

If the DM decides that he/she really wants to make sure Players have a good grasp of how the game is played and that the Players are plying with skill and creativity before pulling out "the works" as they would like to, then using XP for level progression might make sense to gauge how the Players are doing as they handle their PC's from one adventure to the next.

Perhaps once the Players are playing at a level of play that is satisfactory to the DM, then XP can be cut out and the DM can just throw what they want at the Players and the Players can decide which characters they want to play with at the proclaimed level the adventure runs at and level up to that point as necessary.  No good reason not to if the DM and the Players are all good with it.

The only time XP is really truly "necessary" is when the game is being played in a competitive format such as at a convention or something.  Players accumulate XP and level a PC as they make their way from one gaming table to the next higher one as they win and ascend till they get to the last, championship table.

Last PC/Player standing wins.

Ultimately, my point is, XP is not stupid or useless or great or awesome or whatever.  It simply is what it is as each individual DM's game world calls for it.

The Liars Blade

This blade is enchanted to act as a sort of "lie detector". If the blade is used to draw blood from a specific person (only one person at a time) and the blood is not cleaned off of the blade, the knife will glow like a black light when the person who was cut tells a lie if they stand within 20 feet of the knife. if they are telling the truth, the blade will glow a bright white color.

Once the blood is cleaned from the blade, the knife, which looks like a small dagger, will no longer detect the last person's truthfulness.

This knife is used by those referred to as "Lord High Executioner" in my game world in the land of Rarshan. The LHE will conduct interviews with suspects and cut them lightly, then stick the knife into the desktop so everyone can see the results of the blade. The blade is never wrong.

Another Glance at the Ranger

I know in an earlier post on Rangers, I likened them to the ultimate Druid henchmen,  I still tend to hold that overall view of them.

However, reading a few posts on forums and in RPG communities lately, I notice how stuck folks get on the text used in the Class description and the tendency people have to liken the Ranger to a Tolkien Aragorn type character.

In all honesty,  I don't see that in the 1E Class description.  What I do get from the book description is a specialist fighter type who is supposed to be an uber-badass with greater minimum set of "natural" abilities as evidenced by the min requirements for certain ability scores over those of a "regular" fighter.

I tend to think not so much of a "woodlands" Ranger but an Army Ranger instead.  Someone who is trained toward taking down a particular set or class of "target" opponents.  in the case of the 1E Ranger, that would be those creatures identified as "Giant" Class.

I think some of the confusion comes from the the reference to outdoor skills like tracking and "woodcraft" as well as having the ability to cast Druid (and MU) spells at a higher level.

Think of the Army Ranger type though.  Not only do they excel at kicking Giant Class ass, but they are trained to be more of a "guerilla" tactics fighter, using the environment around them to get one up on opponents who may not operate or typically have been trained to fight in such a manner.

In that light, tracking and "woodcraft" skills make perfect sense considering that type's need to function and be resourceful in that type of operating environment.

No, I don't see Aragorn in the book Class description.  I see instead a specialty fighter who is more of a "guerilla" fighter than a conventionally trained soldier type.

Look at the description of a Fighter and I get more of an impression of a Roman soldier, taught how to use conventional weapons of war such as swords, spears, lances, etc... against others more or less like themselves.

Back to the Ranger Class description.  and with that comparison, I see even moreso that "Army Ranger/guerilla" distinction.

As a matter of fact,  I see the use of spells at higher levels part and parcel of the specialist who is trained to take down the biggest baddies out there.  The ones where "conventional" weapons and fighting abilities may not be enough to get it done against such monstrosities.  Those spells help them take on the even bigger dogs of those types of creatures.

As a matter of fact,  I am enjoying seeing the Ranger in such light that I now seriously considering moving away from my Druid Henchman view and adopting this one all out.

Examples of Druidic magic or, "Enter The Silvered Woods"

The two companions walked through the Silvered Woods slowly, taking their time.  They had oft heard about these woods as they were growing up and had heard even more once they had begun their quest.

The stories of fairy type and other wildly different and magical creatures were many and often embellished to the point of obvious tall tale.  But they had listened to them all and remembered them just the same.

They could hear the muted sounds of the wood.  A scampering of squirrels up high, The cautious tread of a deer nearby.  The birds were hushed but not entirely silent and it seemed the whole woods was somehow waiting or perhaps holding it's breath as the two strangers passed through.

The taller of the two caught a movement off to his left side and elbowed his friend, directing his attention with a hushed voice, "see there, to the left?  Who is that?"  Both young men could now see a robed man walking among the Oaks and Willows.  He had seemingly come out of thin air, not having seen hide nor hair of him before that moment. Their casual stride came to a halt as they watched the strangely dressed man walking away from them.

"I don't like that at all."  said Hector the taller and more robust of the two to his friend now standing at his right side.  "I know", answered Robert.  "How could a man just appear out of nowhere in the middle of these woods and one of us not know it?"

Hector had been very puzzled by the same thought.  His just completed training as a Ranger, the third in a line of Rangers, should have prepared him to be much more observant than that.  While Robert, also just finishing his training as a Warrior, had not been as thoroughly experienced in the outdoors, certainly had grown up in the outdoors much as Hector himself had.

As the two silently watched the robed man, lost in their thoughts, they also, out of fresh training, began to draw their weapons, almost unconsciously, to be prepared, they thought, just in case.  They scarcely had drawn their weapons though when what they saw next, shocked them so much they almost dropped those weapons now in their hands.

The robed man was mumbling something.  They could just barely make out the drone of sound coming from him when suddenly, the man walked right into a tree.

Now, he didn't walk into a tree and bonk his head to fall to the ground. No, the man walked into the tree and disappeared.  Just the same way you or I might walk into a doorway.  One second he was there, the next, he was gone.  The two young men were stunned! 

Hector began to slowly make his way off of the path and into the woods toward the tree the man had disappeared into.  Robert, seeing his friend's movement, stayed right beside him.  However, no sooner had either of them stepped more than ten feet off of the path than a poke in their backs and a deep voice voice behind them froze them in their tracks.

Slowly they turned around and behind them, holding a menacing looking sort of oaken club, was the very man they had watched walk into a tree just moments before.  "We have very few trespassers into the Silvered Woods anymore." The man told them.  "Of those who do, most seem intent on causing some sort of trouble when they are here."  The man slowly shook his gray tinged but heavily haired head said.  "So, What are two young adventurers such as yourselves doing in my woods?"  He asked.  "And you'll want to choose your answers carefully or my friend here may not be as forgiving as I am."

Around them, a tree seemed to have come up behind them and was threatening menacing branches that moved like arms.  "Uh Oh", thought Hector, " I don't think I like where this is going."  Robert could only stare around him and looked at his Ranger friend for some kind of encouragement.

In the bit above, the Druid spells demonstrated were;  Pass Plant,  The Druidic ability for Wilderness Movement and Call Woodland Beings with a Treant as the answering creature.

I love Druids as they are perhaps my absolute favorite PC class to play.  Let's continue this story for a bit and see how much more of the Druids abilities we can show off as these two wanderers meet their first Druid.

Spoiled Players and Dominating DM's

How many times do you read through various RPG forum posts to see some pillow biting, bedwetting Player crying about how it's "not fair" that a DM/GM imposed a rule in the game which didn't go the way the player wanted?  Now the DM is being talked about as if he or she is a criminal who ruined the game because they wouldn't allow the Player to do something utterly stupid and out of bounds that would throw the game off but it would make the player feel better about themselves?

There are a lot of those out there.

At the same time, there are some dandy posts by DM/GM's who seem to think they are running a gulag instead of a game.

There are quite a few of these too.

First of all, it's a game people.  A fantasy game.  Get over it.

Secondly, It's a game with rules and archtypes.  Play the game and don't make others live or die over the small stuff.

Players, the game takes place in place X, you all came together to have an adventure.  The DM (probably) worked for long hours to either write that game or get to know it in depth if it's a published module.  If he or she says the beginning of the adventure begins by the party arriving in town Y and that they see something at building Z or Tavern A, then that's where you go.  Don't suddenly decide you want to turn around and have your character go in the opposite direction then cry that the DM is "railroading" the game.  Don't be such a pansy

DM, place the setting on the stage and be ready for the Players to go through the setting as they will, as long as they are going through it, all is cool.  If you try to hold their hands and walk them through it of force them into a specific situation, don't be surprised when they all have to leave early to go wash their feet.  That is "railroading" when you don't let them go through the adventure on their own.

Players, you chose a Class that is associated with requiring a connection to a deity of some sort (Cleric, Druid, Paladin, etc...).  Don't be stupid and think that there aren't going to be some added conditions and stipulations for your PC.  if you try to do something that the Deity your PC chose to follow and represent does not allow for, don't cry when that spell doesn't work or there is some repercussion for stepping out of bounds of the Deity's expectations. 

DM's, just because you get to "play god" doesn't mean you get to just invent crap on the spot because you're jealous the player thought of something you didn't expect.  If it's a known deity, both you and the player should have gotten together up front to make sure you both know what kind of deity it is and the expectations of that deity.  If it's a deity you or the player made up, then make sure the both of you sit down and flesh it out before game time so that both of you are on the same page going in.  There really shouldn't be surprises mid game because you want to spice things up out of the blue.

This isn't a game that is supposed to a historical simulation and it isn't a game that must be a duplicate "real" world. 

Hell, even the the game's author tells you at multiple points across several books that if it breaks the game for you and your players, to ditch the book rules and go with something that works better for your group.

Yes, most people expect rules, even if they don't follow "reality", to at least make sense.  If a rule comes up and it doesn't make sense to you as a DM and the Players, then by golly, change that rule.  This is your game, not some nameless twit on the internet who declares that you are evilspawn if you dare wander off the words on the printed page.  That's some nerd with no social skills and no social life.  Ignore them for what they are and play the game that works best for your table.

Players, learn to appreciate what you have.  Chances are, if you're sitting down to play a 2 or 3 hour adventure all you had to do is roll up a PC and bring your imagination and maybe some dice.

For those 2 or 3 hours you play, it is most likely the DM had to spend double that amount of time and likely even longer (especially if they are writing the adventure themselves) just so you would have a game to play. 

Just as you want to be creative and come up with new, imaginative ways to handle situations in game, so must your DM have to be able to make adjudications and rulings on the spot for that new move or new weapon, magic item, etc... on the spot.  Give them a break.  You don't like DM fiat to determine a result?  Then make sure you aren't putting the DM into a corner where they haven't had the time or opportunity to plan ahead and know what to do if that situation should come up.  The game must go on and so the DM has to make a ruling quickly.  Sometimes that means making it up then and there so as to keep things going.  Deal with it.  Move on.

One thing that all of the books agree on and is repeated multiple times throughout is that the game is the DM's game.  They have the last word.  Yes, the book does tell DM's that if they run the game by not taking the players into consideration then they run the risk of not having any players.  So there is the ultimate last word. 

If your DM is being that big of an ass then push back from the table and go do something else.  Hell, start your own game and be the DM yourself.  See how that works out for you.  If that DM wants to DM, he'll change his ways (or hers) if they can't buy a clue even if everyone walks away from them, then they are going to be one seriously lonesome DM.

On the other hand, DM's, if your have a player or more than one player who expects you to hand over everything and cave in to their whining and tantrums, then kick their sorry away from your table.  Most likely, the other players will appreciate you having the intestinal fortitude for owning your game and for making sure that everyone at the table is having fun instead of just some little "that ain't fair" nerds who aren't happy until everyone else is miserable.