Looking Up Rules Is Part Of The Fun!

This notion of rulings not rules...

It is not being applied properly.

It doesn't mean NEVER LOOK UP THE RULES, it means make up your own rules when rules for something don't exist! Then... you make a ruling.

Somehow this has turned into, "Put that book down!"

I believe this is a symptom of the storyteller DM. Egotistical DMs so concerned about their narrative, this grand story they've been dreaming up, oh no, don't you dare interrupt it! I'm on a roll, I'm flowing, don't you dare touch that book!

No, I say pick that beautiful book up!

Reference it damn it. You wouldn't be sitting around playing without it.

The books are great. They are artifacts; wonderous things that got us into the game in the first place. They are fonts of knowledge and inspiration -- especially the one pictured above.

For some gamers the only time they ever got to look at the books was when we were playing. We were always surrounded by D&D books, and other games, it was part of the culture to look at them as we played... and any time we had (or have) a question about the rules you're damn right we looked it up!

Wizards have spell books and gamers have rule books.

This modern notion that rules can't be looked up during play is pure garbage.

The notion that it's not the "OSR way" is also garbage. Although maybe it's true in the sense that the OSR is a modern creation; a modern reinterpretation of the old. There are a lot of myths involved. 

The way people play now is not the way they played then.

It is older people rereading the rules and perhaps coming to a better understanding of them (technically) and then playing the game now, not as they did, but as they wish they had, or as they feel they "should have" and then imposing this falsely as something that always was.

Nope.

There were, and always have been, pauses and interruptions to consult the books; the aversion to it now is repulsive to me. Consulting the very books that the games are based on is an essential part of the experience. I would want it no other way.

In the desire to save the past, the past is being revised.

Playtesting the System... And Then, Autarch

You can get carried away with writing rules, it's very exciting when you're locked in, but at some point you need to stop... and see if they work. 

Although I have 30 some odd classes, the usual plus oddities like plague doctors and amazons, this test included four standards, warrior, cleric, thief, and sorcerer (to call it wizard or mage or sorcerer is more of a quandary than it should be).

To sum up the system super fast: 

• Instead of fighting fantasy's skill, we have four stats ported directly from D&D (str, dex, wis, cha). All skills are linked to a stat.
• Skills are roll equal to or under.
• Combat is opposed roll, roll higher. Winner does damage regardless of who's turn it is.
• Damage uses a chart, the d6 roll is modified by armor.
• Character creation offers mandatory skills by class plus a few random rolls on a class skill chart.

Party: prime stats: (Fate is luck, the better your core stats the lower your Fate, the thief had the best stats. Fate lowers with use, but only if it succeeds).

    Sorcerer: HP: 16, Fate: 9, AC: 0, Weapon--Dagger: 4

    Warrior: HP: 22, Fate: 9, AC: -3, Weapon--Sword: 8

    Thief: HP: 17, Fate: 8, AC: 0, Weapon--Dagger: 6

    Cleric: HP: 14, Fate: 9, AC: -2, Weapon--Mace:7, Faith: 7

Entering the dungeon the party chose the north passage (random roll). The thief checked the door for traps and failed. The thief's traps skill is a 7 (that's a 58% chance of success) and the thief failed this roll every time -- attempted 4 or 5 times. That's just a bit of bad luck.

Moving along, they entered the triangle room with standing coffins and out came the skeletons:

    Skeletons: HP: 10, AC: 0, Fighting: 4, Damage: Sword.

Immediately, I see, your stealth and initiative rules have to be solid (not vague) choose something, lock it in. Also in this system, who goes first doesn't always matter, combat is an opposed roll--high roll wins and does damage; you can kill a monster on its turn. This makes whose turn it is at times confusing. However there are only certain things you can do on your turn. There are strengths and weaknesses to doing it this way and this is something I'm pondering.

Anyhow, the skeletons were less of a threat than they could have been, thanks to some lucky rolls (and more than a few ties, something that happened throughout, surprisingly, I ruled stalemates though I wrote different options for this). Also, the sorcerer unleashed a spell I call Arrow Storm (costs 3 HP and unleashes a number of arrows equal to your roll) rolled a 4 (arrow storm skill of 7, but was raised to 8 using what I call a downtime skill of astrology to improve 1 spell by 1 until the next downtime) those 4 arrows helped undo the skeletons. 

Moving on around they entered the ghoul room where I was reminded to solidify my surprise rules as the ghouls jumped out. This should have been a tougher fight, but the cleric used turn undead (via the faith skill, Faith, like fate, lowers with use, but only if you fail your roll) to keep the ghouls cowering on defense mode, which means even if they win a combat, they don't do damage. The others chopped them up. Warrior finds a magic sword (+1 on damage rolls).

They then failed to find the secret door to the gorgon (medusa) who certainly would have ended them.

They entered the fountain room and I rolled randomly to see if anyone would dare drink; none did. They also failed to find that secret door as well (there is a secret door skill but none had it, no even the thief, so it's a straight wisdom roll. So, they opened the other door and woke up 2 ogres...    

    Ogres: HP: 15, AC: -1, Fighting: 5, Damage: large beast -- this is considerable damage.

During this fight the warrior got knocked down to exactly 0 HP, so he had to roll fate every round to avoid death, which he kept making. The fight only lasted 3 rounds technically, but remember, everyone's action is damage for someone. The thief chose to hide in shadows to sneak attack. Worked but he died anyway. The sorcerer was almost dead, so cast disappear (invisibility) on himself -- this actually reduced him to only 1 HP left. Then the cleric died, and finally the sorcerer took a chance because one ogres was dead and the other was at 1 HP. 

TPK.

During the ogre fight, several people (including an ogre) went prone due to fumbles. When prone you can only defend and can't get up until it's your turn.

Lessons learned:

• The fighting fantasy damage charts are fun in theory, but I'm wondering if rolling damage the traditional way wouldn't be better and have armor as damage reduction as opposed to lessoning the d6 roll.
• To have proper turns or not to? That is the question. There are pros and cons.
• It's amazing how many different games have convoluted surprise and initiative rules; these need to be clear and simple. Side initiative works just fine for any system.
• Monsters have less HP than PCs in general, otherwise you wouldn't survive a single fight.
• How would this little gauntlet have played out using D&D rules (any)? I think much the same, so I think I've captured the right feel. The difference here is that in D&D as you gain levels you become quite powerful and combat becomes sometimes a pointless drag. That will never happen here... ever. An ogre will always be dangerous, and I think that's the way it should be.
• How necessary is 2d6? I could write the same exact game using d20 contested combat rolls with percentile skills. This would give more wiggle room, yet doesn't this already exist in the form of Palladium?

Pondering time...

Playtest your shit before it's too late!

Oh yeah, then this arrives!

Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint (ACKS II) by Alexander Macris (Autarch).

Talk about high quality books! 

These things are insane. This is about as comprehensive a version of B/X, BECMI as you will ever find.

The art is great (comic book style) some A.I. it seems; the theme: Imperial Rome.

This was the most I ever spent on a Kickstarter and I did so because the canceltards were pounding Macris quite hard. So a little support was in order. 

Anyhow, reports on these beauties will begin to pop up very soon. It's a lot to digest though.

Well done, Autarch.

I've Been Working On A System...

I was working on a new adventure and I like what I've done there (real dark!) but system mechanics have occupied my mind consistently for quite some time now.

I'm tired of being disappointed by games, even games I technically like or want to like. This always leads me to create my own stuff.

Too many house rules and you've created something else.

I wish the perfect system existed so I could just enjoy it.

And I'm certainly not creating it.

But what I'm making hits all the right buttons for me.

So far I have about 50 incomplete pages in progress (and that just in the last couple of weeks!) most of that is classes (around 30 right now). I have no idea when I'll finish it (end of the year? longer? probably longer) and I won't rush it, that's for sure, but this will be taking up the majority of my free time.

Thankfully I've got lots of art already drawn. No way I'm drawing all the monsters though.

What is it? I do have a simple but cool name for it. And that's a trick these days -- coming up with a name that no else has.

But what is it?

An amalgamation of D&D, Fighting Fantasy, and Traveller. 

Game on. 

Triggered Actions

2 claws/1 bite... iconic monster stat-line -- but, what if the bite attack did twice the listed damage and was only triggered if both claws hit? Obviously both claws have to hit the same target, like grappling and hug attacks. 

With if a dragon's breath weapon was only triggered on a critical hit? It would need a greater threat range than just 20, say 18/19-20 (20 would still be double damage.) Their breath weapon becomes an unpredictable bonus attack that occurs after all melee strikes are determined. And if multiple crits are rolled... prepare to burn!  

How about wizards getting a free spell if they score a 20 in combat? -- whether they have one available or not. Makes combat a little more exciting for magic-users. Same goes for spell-casting monsters or any monsters' special ability.

Suppose ghoul paralysis is only triggered on a bite (double listed damage) which in turn is only triggered if both claws hit? Makes paralysis less common, but more fun (it is a death sentence after all.)

The assassin's death strike triggered on a crit...? (Said that before, just saying it again.)

A medusa's gaze... Nobody fights medusas, you see statues, you run! Too fucking dangerous. What if her gaze (that's right, HER gaze, Woketards of the Coast) was triggered on her critical hits and your critical failures? 

Level drain, (the dreaded!)... again, make it triggered; 2 attacks, if both hit, then the classic -- grab you by the throat/kiss you/bite you/suck out your breath, whatever it is, followed by your preferred way to deal with energy drain.

Thieves get a pick-pocket check on a crit (if applicable) or a free back-stab, or a back-flip out of harms way, or hide-in-shadows (even if there aren't any!) They're just cool that way!

You see, crits should do more than just double damage.

How about a free attack if your crit slays? (This idea's certainly not new, but it is to someone.)

Clerics/paladins, when they score a crit vs chaos or undead, they (or their weapon) start(s) to glow with holy light and for the rest of the fight they do double damage (triple if another crit is scored, etc.) Who wouldn't enjoy that? It's bad-ass.

The barbarian's rage should be triggered, not planned -- a berserker can not control themselves! So, triggered by their own crit or a crit against them and then they fucking lose their shit! (They should also become a threat to allies while enraged.) If they want to fight the rage, they must roll under their wisdom score on a d20; same thing to end it. A crit on them also ends it.

Mechanics like this make the game more fun. They'll prompt more combats with monsters we've always avoided, and more combats period. Combat is FUN. It is not a failed state... unless you're a thief. 

The possibilities here are simple and numerous.

Tweak your games thus.

Banning A.I. In RPGs Is Pointless And Stupid

Totally disagree with banning A.I. from gaming products or anything else.

Taking a stand against A.I.is a form of virtue signaling. This always backfires as pretenders will be plentiful. Be very suspicious of this bandwagon. Pay no attention to organizations, awards, and accolades that claim to be pure. Don't believe me? Just wait for the scandals.

If I couldn't draw, I'd be using it. Why spend money on art when you don't have to? Of course, there is the cost of subscribing to A.I. -- I have no idea how much this is. It will come down to is it cheaper or not. Probably is cheaper. Much. And of course A.I. artists will emerge, experts in producing high quality stuff...

I've never played around with A.I. -- I suspect it's a massive time sink (fun or not) and no doubt I'd eventually feed my own art into it to see what I could "draw." Why should I draw, when A.I. can draw what I would draw, only better?

Pandora's Box has been been opened, that genie's out of the bottle... forever.

I see a lot of truly phenomenal A.I. art online... just scan Pinterest. Admittedly, most A.I. art right now is a bit flawed, little mistakes here and there, and, it has a certain "glow" to it that I can't explain other than calling it a "glow." This glow makes it unmistakably A.I., like water-color is unmistakably water-color. This will vanish. A lot of A.I. also happens to be boring, but so is a lot of corporate art (just look at WoTC.) Like real art, a certain amount of skill is involved.

A.I. WILL be everywhere. Nothing you can do about it.

Here's a prediction:

In the future (not too distant) you'll come home from a hard days work (or not) and instead of playing video games or watching a movie or watching YouTube, you'll use some form of A.I. to create your own unique movie/game/whatever. You'll type something like: 1920's noir, violent, sexy, rainy, main character type X, 3 hours long, plenty of twists, animated (or live action) etc., and out will pop perfection customized just for you. You'll have your own library of movies and games that no one else has ever seen before. A.I. will pop out a complete movie in minutes (or instantly) that would normally take a year and hundreds of millions of dollars to make. Maybe you'll share them, maybe you won't. Some of these you'll watch over and over... they'll be that good. You'll create your own series. 

Right now, there are A.I. mini-movies on YouTube. They're surprisingly fascinating and remind me of dreams in how the reality sometimes warps in them. I actually like this aspect. Unbelievable potential is there.

There'll be no more actors except in little known, back-alley, old school stage-theaters. No more animators. No more, etc., etc.

There'll be entirely A.I. sports leagues. Don't like the MLB or NFL? Simply create your own league and watch an entire season unfold. It'll be as detailed and real as you want it to be.

And just wait till you can jack into your own creations... Live a video game. Live anything.

Some people will make millions ($) because they will have a knack for creating amazing whatever.

Movies will be made completely by one person.

The best super-heroes movies have yet to be made (that's an understatement) because A.I. will perfect the effects, flying and such. The characters will look PERFECT.

Of course you'll pay for all of this stuff, but it will simply replace what you pay for now. And that'll be the rub... who controls the "program." Ultimately, the people with the money will try to ban it's use unless you're paying them. Laws will be passed. Enter the A.I. black market.

A.I. RPGs are on the way too (they're probably already here, I just haven't seen or looked for them.)

Taking a stand against A.I. is like taking a stand against the printing press, that's how revolutionary this is.

Good luck with that. 

Pandora's Box is irreversible.

Only something apocalyptic can stop it.

Either way, game on.

Bringing In 2025 With "AD&D"

That is, AD&D, as in Adventures Dark and Deep by Joseph Bloch. Not new, just the newest form (originally three core books, now two.) One of the stalwart stewards of all things 1st Edition, Greyhawk in particular, Bloch created "AD&D" with the goal of doing what Gary would've done had he revised the game himself. As we know, Gary was booted before any such revision and the anti-Gygax 2nd Edition followed. Bloch brings new classes, like the Jester, Savant, Mystic, and Mountebank and new race choices including Centaurs, and of course, new spells and magic items, etc. Similar attempts have been made, such as, Trent Smith's Heroic Legendarium (a fine book) and OSRIC (more of an SRD) but I've seen nothing as comprehensive as what Bloch has done here.

Behold the size of these! Both are 500 page behemoths. Will the print-on-demand binding hold up? Such binding is weak enough on small books. My two original TSR books shown above are 40+ years old and the bindings are still perfect. I would've almost preferred soft-cover perfectly bound for these colossal tomes. I wonder what the cost would be to get them professionally bound?

The formatting is in the style of the later AD&D hardcovers (think Monster Manual II and Unearthed Arcana.) The art is mostly good and reminiscent of how it once was (black and white is best in life! Yes, color can be great, but look to companies like WoTC for what NOT to do! Jesus, WoTC sucks.) Anyhow, this bestiary has over 1000 entries, more than you'll ever need. It's like Monster Manuals I, II, and Fiend Folio all under one cover... and then some! Here, there are plenty of demons and devils and... angels (hell yeah!) and of course plenty of dragons. Curiously, no gold dragon -- replaced by the electrum? -- what is the story here?

Very nice Amazon. A level of boldness missing these days. Bold is good.

Add in the Book of Lost Tables and you have every random encounter table possible, mostly in the D1000 format. The best collection of random encounter tables that I've seen anywhere. And to simulate truly random, I've created a random table of these random tables. So I can randomly roll any monster in the game! I'm beginning to think that dungeons shouldn't be any more stratified than the wilderness. While traveling, you can encounter a dragon or a dryad regardless of your level. Although I'm as guilty as any one, there should be no "Dungeon for levels 3-5" there should simply be dungeons... enter at your own risk, anything is possible. The secret to explaining this... lots of empty spaces in between, plenty of empty (though not meaningless) rooms and long twisting corridors. No one will hear you scream... and no one will hear you fight! Nothing in reality is stratified for your safety and convenience. Although, yes, a certain logic does exist for the more dangerous foes being found the deeper you go. Still, I'm for much more randomized danger. I think I'll roll up a truly random dungeon and see what happens...

Pages upon pages of this!

It is (almost) exactly the game you think it is, though some subsystems have changed and there are more races and classes (the more classes the better!)  A small nitpick I have: The Assassin is presented as an "optional" class. Why? In a game where you can be chaotic-evil, murder, steal, raid, and ravage, where you can play a blackguard (the classic anti-paladin) the paragon of all things evil --which is not presented as "optional." Is an assassin worse than a blackguard? Castles & Crusades has also done this to assassins with their recent printings and they knew Gary well. Is this something he had in mind? Otherwise, I just don't get it. It's akin to making Greedo shoot first. Don't soften things up. Ever. That's a 2nd Edition sin.

Anyhow, these two massive tomes, with a side helping of random tables, are literally all you'd ever need to play this classic game... FOREVER.

Well done Joseph! 

Now people, ENTER DUNGEONS, LOOT AND SLAY!!!