Gone Fishing

Off to Lough Erne for a week.

Once the Dice are Out of Their Bag, They Must Draw Blood!

This better be worth it

Here's a classic mistake I made recently while running a game. There was a storm, the ship was in trouble. A PC was on deck and I said "give me a Dex roll". They failed....and I had no idea what I wanted to do with this information. I certainly wasn't going to kill the character by throwing them overboard from a boat with low-level characters who had no way of rescuing them in the middle of a heavy sea and strong winds. The character was simply standing on deck for some reason, so there wasn't even a task to interrupt by falling.

Characters do not need to roll for every task, even when things are difficult. If the result of failing is simply "well, I'll get up and try again" or whatever, then the dice roll is pointless. Just tell the player that they succeed, perhaps adding that it was tricky. Want to climb a tree to see where you are? You climb the tree. Ride a horse out of town? Fine. Even a character who can't actually ride should not be forced to roll until they succeed if all that's going to happen is exactly that.

Dice are about risk and as previously mentioned AD&D deals in resources (much like life), so risk is about wasting those resources and if no resource is at risk the dice should stay in their bag. A "resource" can be time, money, hit points, loyalty, the character's life, a henchman's life, personal reputation and goals, or any number of real or abstract possessions. When those things are on the table then there is a reason to get the dice out because then the result is meaningful to the players and there is some thrill of waiting to see the outcome and the relief of a good result and the adapting to the setback of a bad one. If you as DM can't think of any resource which would be lost by a failed roll or gained by a successful one, just narrate some reasonable outcome and press on.

In the case of the ship in the storm, "You're tossed around by the rough seas for about half an hour at which point you hear a horrendous cracking sound as the main mast splits about half way up" (as the damage from the storm accumulated) would have been much better and, if you don't rush it, might even give a player a chance to ask about the mast and whether anyone should be doing anything about the fact that the sails were still unfurled.

It's easy to slip into a habit with dice but always remember that there are resources at the table too: fun, momentum, and play time being key ones. Don't waste them with pointless dice rolling.

Rulings, not Houserules

Overly Casual Gamers

I mentioned in the cleric post that I "hate houserules".  One reason for that is that I often play with casual gamers - ie, people who play games in general rather than being specifically roleplayers (and sometimes not even gamers) who care, or want to care, about Systems. When we sit down to play, it's enough work for them to get their heads around the parts of the PHB that are important to their character. Giving them a houserule document of more than a paragraph is not usually their or my idea of upping the fun levels.

But there is a deeper reason - roleplaying is not about rules. In fact, it is very specifically not about rules and all about rulings at the table at the time.

The RPG designer who tries to write rules to cover every eventuality is a fool (I learnt this the hard way). They're a fool to themselves and a fool to their players. Every new rule adds a loophole and every aspect of the characters' lives which are covered by a rule begs the question of why some other part isn't, so that the whole process feeds on itself if you let it.

Some game designers, particularly Robin Laws as an example (I've just done a preview and I see Zak's latest post is about Laws - must be something in the air), drew a line in the sand over this and instead looked for all-encompassing "unified" rules. The idea being that by finding a brush that is broad enough, it is possible to cover all actions in one or, at most, a few swipes. No gaps are left and there is no massive pile of rules to memorize. Lovely.

Kate Moss: the
Role-Playing Game

The only problem with this idea is that it doesn't work for any sort of complicated characterisation either of the characters or their world. We all know that the real world is complicated and inconsistent. Putting a single mechanic over it makes everything feel like one of those strange models that appear on the cover of Cosmopolitan - initially inviting but on closer inspection devoid of any substance other than class-A drugs. Well, most RPGs don't include hard drugs, but the point stands.

In Laws' case, the rules become totally abstracted from the gameworld (and tend to be associated instead with some aspect of the setting that the players respond to, in contrast to the characters) and are essentially themed board- or card-games. Well designed ones, but totally unable to carry a campaign with any but the most dedicated fan of the settings.

The so-called third edition of D&D is a strange system which manages to apply the unified mechanic idea and yet be mind-bogglingly complicated at the same time, but even when designed by someone who isn't an idiot the UM comcept creaks all over the place as the one-size-fits-all quickly shows why people pay good money for tailor-made clothes.

Which is where the DM comes in (or the GM-this isn't really a D&D point). The DM is that tailor, and the tailoring is done during play, not before it. The rulebooks give the baseline "if nothing special is going on" guide of how things work. The DM decides when those guildelines need bent or discarded, or when new ones are needed.

It is a classic mistake to write down these decisions in the name of consistency. Even writing them down in the name of "that's a good rule" is often a mistake, in my experience. And my experience is of being the sort of person who can fill boxes with print outs of rules and "good ideas".

In the long run this tendency strangles the DM and the game. The best thing about playing with non-RPGers is that it has forced me to scrape everything back to the bone. No written-in-stone houserules, no charts of new weapon speeds or skill difficulties. I've restricted myself as much as possible to re-writing some of the more badly worded rules into a more intelligible or faster form which doesn't to change their actual meaning in terms of the game world.

Apart from my notes, the only thing I actually use at the table now is my re-written combat tables which I've laminated for play.

I do aim for consistency in decisions that effect the party. If I decide that a certain wall needs a d% roll against Dex x 3, then that's the rule the whole party uses at the time (thieves get a by in the case of a wall that other people can climb). But it says nothing about what I'll rule at the next wall. I might use 3d6 (something of a habit, in fact); I might use d20 or 4d6.

This does not bode well for
a night of wild adventure.

Running a role playing game is a learning experience for everyone - hopefully the players are learning about the gameworld and their characters, while the DM is learning how to run a fun game. Tying yourself to years of precedent is a bad idea and you should always allow yourself to go back to the rules and start from scratch when you feel the need. It both frees you to apply what you've learnt and  gets you away from bad decisions.

Obviously, many things about the rules of any roleplaying game annoy someone enough that they never want to play with some aspect of the game. The economic system of AD&D is a good example. Anyone who is interested in some level of economic reality in their gameworld will quickly see that the objective of throwing heaps of gold at the players and then taking it off them again does not sit well with a study of the English wool trade of the 13th century.

These cases are where the booby traps really lie for the unwary. AD&D is actually quite well put together in terms of its objectives and it can be surprisingly hard to make permanent changes to the system which stand the test of long term play, but it can be done.

In the end, though, role-playing is what happens when the rules get out of the way and if they're to be out of the players' way they must also be put beyond the DM's reach and s/he must instead "wing it" rather than be constantly cracking open a book to look up some table or other. This is where the real fun is for both sides.

City State Encounter: Achmed & Co.

Pulp fantasy settings,
where everything
is black and white

Who: A trio of petty crooks, one a magic user, one a thief, and one a houri (from White Dwarf #13).

Where: City State of the Invincible Overlord, but any large city will do.

Possible Hooks: PCs may be victims of Achmed & Co.; or hired by a patron who was and who wants revenge; or they may be wanted after a job goes wrong; or they may simply meet and start hanging around with them, getting involved in their schemes, etc.

Overview

Achmed is a magic user by class, but a thief by nature. Until recently his main M.O. was running children's magic shows in market places and street corners using a wide range of cantrips. He and his beautiful assistant Helen would entertain the crowd while her brother Tom would prowl the parents, particularly fathers (and other males) who were distracted by Helen's particular charms picking the odd pocket but mostly, like his sister and his master, listening for gossip which would indicate possible rich pickings. Once a mark was selected, a plan would be hatched -- straight forward thievery, seduction, magical trickery or a combination of all three -- to separate them from whatever horded wealth the trio could winkle out of them.

The shows continue but recently Achmed's success has allowed him to make a new investment: a crystal ball. This, he hopes, will allow them to case their targets in greater detail and be that much surer of both the possible rewards and risks. Helen's attractions make it easy to keep males engaged long enough to get a good affinity for the ball.

Achmed

Magic user, 15,000xp (4th level).
S:10 I:14 W:7 :C11 D:14 Ch:10 Cm:15, Chaotic Neutral, 32 years old.

Hp: 9, AC: 10, CL:0

Treasure

• Scroll of 5 cleric spells (levels 1-6)
• Scroll of 4 magic spells (see below)
• Potion of rainbow hues
• Murlynds Spoon
• Crystal ball
• 1000gp

Spell Books

Cantrips

Useful: Clean, Flavour, Freshen, Gather, Spice, Wrap, Warm, Stitch, Polish, Dry, Sprout, Clean, Dampen, Colour

Reversed: Dirty, Untie
Legerdemain: Change, Distract
Person-affecting: Sneeze, Giggle, Yawn, Scratch, Blink
Personal: Bug, Gnats
Haunting: Tap, Creak, Whistle, Footfall

1st Level Spells

Affect Normal Fires, Enlarge, Feather Fall, Message, Read Magic, Shocking Grasp

2nd Level Spells

Locate Object, Stinking Cloud, Vocalise.

Scroll Spells

1st level: Message
3rd level: Fly, Water Breathing
4th level: Minor Globe of Invulnerability

M.O.

When doing his magic shows, Achmed will have a full complement of 12 cantrips memorised, along with Locate Object and Stinking Cloud (in case an escape is needed).

When out on a job, as he often is with Tom, he will memorise the cantrips Distract, Sneeze, Creak, and Footfall. His normal set of first level spells is Feather Fall and Enlarge. His selection of 2nd level spells remains Locate Object and Stinking Cloud.

Only if he is expecting serious trouble will he resort to Enlarge, Shocking Grasp, and Vocalise (to allow silent casting from cover).

Achmed loves cantrips and could well be bought off with the offer of a couple of new ones.

Now available!
Achmed Action Figure!

Appearance

Achmed hails from Tarantis direction and his swarthy complexion lends a small degree of exoticism to his act even in jaded Rhamshandron. He plays on this with lose and rich textiles, a turban, and even a
(costume paste) bejewelled scimitar tucked into a silken sash/belt. A matching but much more serious curved dagger (unsuitable for throwing) hangs below the sword and this is what Achmed will reach for if things go very badly wrong.

His beard and moustache complete the down-market vizier look, although things have been going well recently and the look is less down-market than it was 12 months ago.

The son of a sailor, Achmed can spin a tall tale based on his father's and may perhaps give out a clue to some island-based adventure if the PCs engage him in friendly conversation.

Tom (henchman)

Thief 7,500xp (4th level)
S: 13 I: 12 W: 11 C: 11 D: 15 Ch: 13 Cm:9, Neutral, 17 years old.
Hp: 11, AC: 3 (10+7), CL: 0

Treasure

• Bracers of defense AC4
• 3 +3 darts (CL 3)
• Ring of mind shielding
• 3000gp

Skills (including UA bonuses for no armour)

PP:50
OL:37
F/RT:35
MS:43
HS:30
HN:15
CW:98
RL:20

Appearance/Character 

Thin, pale, with sandy-coloured hair, and rather spotty, Tom followed his sister into a life of crime and has gradually begun to enjoy it as his success and training has improved his ability.

He eschews both armour and direct confrontation, preferring to work in the garb of an upper middle class young man of leisure and trust to his legs if things go bad. Like his master, this act has become more
convincing of late as funds have increased.

Currently content to wench and wander, Tom's main irritation in life is paying his Thieves' Guild dues which he resents. He has not found any friends in the guild and thus has no real weight with them should
he get into trouble with the law.

Helen

Houri 7,500xp (3rd level)
S: 9 I: 13 W: 10 C: 12 D: 13 Ch: 15 Cm:17 (fascinate 8-); Neutral evil; 21 years old
Hp:8; AC:10; CL: 0

Hide in shadows 20%

Treasure

• Potion of vitality
• Poison potion
• Ring of free action
• Philter of beauty
• Philter of love
• 450gp

Spells

1st

Detect charm
Kiss of sleeping
Ventriloquism

2nd

Transfer charm

Appearance/Character

Her professional dress is a strange combination of Amazon-Goth - long blonde hair combined with pale skin and heavy eye make-up. 5' tall, 36-25-35.

Off-duty she retains the hair but braids it. She has had some trouble from real amazons in the city but so far she's managed to avoid any real trouble.

She is tired of the small-time stuff and eager to hit some big scores now that Achmed has his crystal ball. Her powers, natural and magical, have left her with a very low opinion of men and her weakness may be knowing what to do with one who is able to resist her when she's firing on all cylinders.

A second weakness is her tendency to gloat over her conquests.

Achmed's previous assistant also
had some anger issues
(photo:Lois Olson)

Her brother Tom will defend her to death, but she may abandon him in a crisis.

Notes

The Houri is a good NPC class and suits the CSIO well. It was designed by Brian Asbury and if you search with his name online you should have no problem finding the details of the class. As a PC class it is not really recommended but, hey, whatever floats your boat.

Edit: this appears to be a legitimate link via Asbury's old pal Rory Mclean to a "free for non-profit use" and slightly updated version of the WD Houri.

These guys are a typical minor gang from my City State notes and may be individually or collectively encountered in bars or streets anywhere on the east side of the city, near the thieves' quarter and the merchant quarter.

Weather

Hurricane? What are the chances?

Weather is either important or not important.

1. It can be important in its own right - eg, a hurricane.
2. It can be important because the players need something from it - eg, a favourable wind.

So, for an area, make a set of encounter table sub-table for weather rated by uncommon, rare, and very rare. Stick "roll on weather sub-table xxx" as a line on the appropriate encounter charts to cope with #1. If you're doing something where weather comes more to the foreground for some reason, then put the contents directly on the main charts. This means weather will alert you when it has become important.

For #2, when the players ask what the weather's like, roll a weather encounter directly and judge accordingly. If the weather indicated is "common" then it is not note-worthy - not unusually hot or cold, wind in the prevailing direction etc. Don't bother making an actual encounter chart for common weather.

If it's not important, don't waste time on it. Do not come up with a massive table which you roll on each day. The weather is "normal for this time of year in this place" unless the tables alert you otherwise.

Also: "earthquake" is not weather, not even in Greyhawk.

Encounter Charts

Random Bode
Encounter

When I were a lad, I did encounter charts the "proper" way, like in the DMG. With a calculator.

When I were a bit older, I programmed the computer to do the maths.

Now: for each of common, uncommon, rare, or very rare I make a chart with 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20, or (if you're Zak) 100 entries and roll 1d100 for encounters:

1-65: re-roll on common
66-85: re-roll on uncommon
86-96: re-roll on rare
97-00: re-roll on very rare

Much simpler, although it does require two rolls instead of one. I suspect most people who read this will laugh at the idea that it took me 30 years to come up with this.

AD&D Clerics - Where Did It All Go Wrong?

"They're blunt bullets, Mr Wiseguy Vampire"

The AD&D cleric is by far my least favourite class in the game both in terms of roleplaying and the mechanics of the class. The main problem is the lack of a clear archetype, and that comes down to a fairly long list of muddled ideas that make up the foundation of the class:

1. Firstly there's the name. "Cleric" is not "Hobbit" or some other made-up word. It's a real word which was fairly common to non-gamers (which we all once were) and it comes with a lot of baggage. In particular, it had a strong Christian undertone for most of the early players and it was of no particular note that OD&D's clerics bought a "cross" and not the later "holy symbol".
2. Next, the actual origin story of the class is as a vampire hunter. Not even a general vampire hunter, but a class created with a specific (player-character) vampire in mind - Sir Fang of Blackmoor. This introduces the whole bit about the undead. This aspect is okay with me as one thing that can be said of most priestly types is that they have deities and deities have always had a strong association with the afterlife. As such, having the generic cleric take an interest in those things which refuse to "pass over" seems a decent fit to me.
3. Then we have the AD&D PHB text that tells us that the cleric "bears a certain resemblance to religious orders of knighthood of medieval times."
4. But, unlike knights - religious or otherwise - "All are likewise forbidden to use edged and/or pointed weapons which shed blood."
5. And then we have the paladin class. If that's not a class which "bears a certain resemblance to religious orders of knighthood of medieval times" I don't know what is, which leaves the question of what the cleric's doing then.
6. Meanwhile, in fantasy stories (particularly pulp) the evil high priest so often mentioned in early D&D materials was generally a wizard who happened to worship or summon demons and the like and very rarely did much in the way of weddings and bar-mitzvahs.
7. Finally, there is the gamist origin of the class's mechanics. In the roots of the genre there's really only three common classes: the fighting man (or woman), the sorcerer, and the thief. In the early days we didn't have thieves in the game, before even OD&D there was the fantasy supplement to Chainmail and it had heroes and wizards. The cleric is clearly informed by a design decision that a third class could be squeezed in which was a bit of both. This has little to do with any sort of thematic or roleplaying goals.

What a mess of sometimes conflicting influences. Indeed, on top of that there was the biggest conflict of all in the early days: the total lack of God (capital G). The class was obviously Christian or at the absolute maximum stretch Abrahamic - I could just about squeeze Saladin or King David into the AD&D cleric, I think - yet there was not a mention of the obvious deity they served.

This problem got a little less pressing as settings and supplements were developed and sold which expanded the idea of the cleric to polytheism but this in turn threw several of the other problems into even harsher relief: a cleric of a healing god who trains in the use of armour and weapons? A priestess of Diana who enters combat but can't use a bow? What the hell?

Not D&D

RuneQuest
The early RQ rules throw a harsh but useful light on this mess, I think. In RQ2 (the only copy I have), each cult has Rune Priests and Rune Lords. To be generous, the AD&D cleric is the analogue of the Rune Lord and there is no actual equivalent of the Rune Priest at all. AD&D actually has religion without priests; a true sham.

Even looked at this way, there are still several problems with the class - the specifics of weapon limitations, for example but also the spell lists. But I think there is some mileage in emphasising the idea of the standard cleric class as being a "champion" class for their various religions.

Which still leaves the paladin. Well, I have a solution in mind for that which we'll come back to later.

The RQ Rune Priest represents the "other path" - the ones gifted especially with powers from the god to go out and alter the world and take their culture to other lands and prove the superiority of their gods.

A Cheap Solution
I hate houserules, but I hate clerics more. So, here's my thinking.

Firstly, the cleric as we know it gets a boost. In addition to the thematic problems it has, the class is weak in other ways which leads to real problems from about 7th level onward, when the fighter has gained multiple attacks. Already 2 combat levels behind, the cleric gets an additional ⅓ penalty to his/her effectiveness in combat. The pigeon-hole marked "healbot" beckons ever more strongly.

I suggest

1. That clerics get bonus attacks at the same levels as the ranger (8th and 15th) and the fighter's multiple attacks against <1HD based on combat level (ie, 3 at 4th level, 5 at 7th, 7 at 10th etc).
2. That clerical HD be increased to d10, but without the fighter's additional hp bonus for 17+ CON.
3. Minimum STR of 9.
4. The cast spells as a PHB cleric of one level lower, thus they get no spells at 1st level.
5. May be proficient in any weapon, but retain -3 penalty for non-proficiency and 1/4 rate for new slots.

and that a new class - priest - is introduced. It is based on the current cleric class (ie not on the above modifications) but with these changes:

1. Free casting. Any spell on the cleric list OR on a single (picked at character generation, if there's a choice) spell list associated with their deity (ie, listed as used by them in DDG) may be cast subject to the restrictions of the normal PHB class spells per day. This would allow magic user spells (for example) to be cast but still none higher than 7th level.
2. Weapon list reduced to that of the magic user but otherwise combat remains as per PHB. Proficiency as per magic user in all respects.
3. Armour as per magic user.

In both cases, the character should be allowed to have proficiency in 1 (and only 1) melee weapon which is strongly associated with their deity, if any, and 1 (and only 1) missile weapon strongly associated with their deity, if any.

As regards experience points, until I've had a chance to try this out I'm going to hope that the changes balance out and we can use the cleric table for both. Free casting is a big boost, but losing armour is a big penalty.

Oh, and the paladin becomes a sub-class of the new cleric (the fighting guy). The paladin's powers are as given in PHB with the exception that they get spell casting from second level. XP costs are increased by 10% from the PHB paladin.

A More Expensive Solution
Rebuild the class completely for each deity. There's fun.